Rigging Wykeham-Martin Swivels

[Roach1948]

Onto a new rig question.

I will be adding a WM furling for next season and looking to see what others have done re; rigging the halyard swivel. Classic Marine suggest that the swivel has a tendancy to rotate when furling on the halyard if 3-strand rope is used. They suggest that a cheek-block is placed either side of the mast running to a block to which the swivel is attached. I was planning on using braid-on-braid halyard on the existing tang and was wondering what whether the twisting of the swivel is quite as bad as Classic Marine warn. Any opinions for WM user/enthusiasts?

 

[harvey]

Mine is braid (30 foot boat) and although it does tend to twist, it isn't a huge problem and can be monitored fairly easily to prevent a real twist developing. It's easy enough to take any twist out simply by turning the halliard by hand and shaking the twist up past the masthead block.
John

 

[oldfrank]

Standard, brass Wykeham Martins aren't man enough for a big rig. You find out the hard way when a large jib is thrashing about the foredeck with a large lump of brass still attached to the tack. Cut down Rotostay fittings proved much stronger and man enough for the job. OF

 

[Roach1948]

For this reason I have oversized swivels - and my rig aint that big. 65sq ft. foretraingle. I went for WM as I will only use it on my working jib. All other sails will still hank on - hence not going to foil route. They are not brass either - they are quality bronze!

 

[cliffordpope]

I agree there is a tendency for the halyard to twist, but does that matter? It can only wind so far, and then the twisting has to take place at the swivel.
I used to have a single halyard block on a small jib, but largely as a result of reading Classic Marine's advice I will now be trying a pair of blocks and a double-ended halyard. That in itself is supposed to have advantages in spreading the wear point, as well as holding the upper part of the swivel stationary.
In fact for many years I didn't have a proper W-M swivel at all, just a swivel hank. It worked well enough.

 

[johnchampion]

I installed one last year so I could run it in and out on the bowsprit and following the advice on CM's site ran the halyard from one side of the mast to the other. This worked fine although you do end up with a lot of halyard at deck level when all is up but that's only a minor irritant as I've got bits of string everywhere anyway.

Whether this information is any use of course is dubious as I did not try with a single line however if you think it through it does sort of make sense to double up to avoid twist as WM gear needs all the help you can give it in adverse conditions to make life easy, which is another reason for oversizing in the first place.
I don't really buy the idea that it is not man enough for the job seeing it has stood the test of time for 100 years or so and I would guess not too many yachties have been dispatched to a watery grave through coming into collision with flying lumps of brass (or bronze or whatever).

 

[andrewbodenham]

I think it depends a bit on the distance from the sheaves on the mast to the WM swivel. As this distance increases so does the tendancy for the loop of halyard to wrap up on itself when you try to furl the jib. I've encoutered this on a few Broads yachts, and the outcome tends to be a jib half furled which can't be lowered as the halyard is so snarled up. All hands repair to the foredeck and stare up at the mess ineffectually. Then the furling line jumps off the drum, a gust whips the jib out, the good ship pays off and powers away up the reed bed. Again.
Good maintenance of the top swivel would probably help a lot to alleviate this problem, but I suspect that experimentation will be the best option.
For what it's worth I intend to fit the doubled halyard set-up on my boat when I revise the masthead arrangements this year.

 

[dur]

This seems to work for us...

About 75 sq ft on a WM No. 2 I think.
It does twist up a bit as you drop the sail but its not too bad.