Old rope wire halyards

[jpay]

With a project my mast has two halyards which are wire to rope, they like whipped together, pretty bodgy jobs.

Could I replace these with a dyneema/rope?
What rope and what size should I be looking at?

The boat is an alacrity 19, same sail area as a Wayfarer.

Thank You

 

[Woodlouse]

Yes, replace with dyneema. I'm guessing the old wire/rope was fairly thin stuff, personally I'd go for the same diameter since it'll fit the sheaths and all the other gear best.

You could probably use rope, but stretch will be more of an issue and they originally used wire for that reason.

 

[sailorman]

I got a god deal on ebay & didnt change the sheaves either. i dont get ant chafe because of not changing then either

 

[rob2]

Unless you're seriously racing, a good pre-stretched rope would do the job. But if you feel like splashing out on Dyneema, I doubt you'll regret it. I can't remember all the recommended sheaf profiles for different rope types, but I seem to recall that for a wire/rope combination the pulley had a major diameter to suit the rope with a central groove to accomodate the wire. Could be worth investigating whether a new profile is required to get best life from an expensive Dyneema halyard!

Rob.

 

[jpay]

Unless you're seriously racing, a good pre-stretched rope would do the job. But if you feel like splashing out on Dyneema, I doubt you'll regret it. I can't remember all the recommended sheaf profiles for different rope types, but I seem to recall that for a wire/rope combination the pulley had a major diameter to suit the rope with a central groove to accomodate the wire. Could be worth investigating whether a new profile is required to get best life from an expensive Dyneema halyard!

Rob.

Thank You
Fortunately for me the mast doesn't have sheaves. The rope simply passes through a block at the top. The old blocks are as bad as the rope/wire hash and so I will buy some new ones too.