Rope and wire halyards question

[Ardenfour]

Woohoo! New boat,can there be any better feeling than the first sail,when you see how she handles, and you explore from stem to stern on a voyage of discovery. Ok, I'm still excited!
Anyway, on my first sail in her from troon to port bannatyne yesterday,where my previous boat had 2 winches,this one's got 7. The foresail halyards are part wire, around a meter of which emerged from the sheave at the bottom of ghe mast when the sail is fully raised. Yesterday led the rope tail to a coachroof winch, which meant the wire/rope splice was under full halyard tension - is it safe to subject the join to this tension? Or should the wire part be round the winch drum? There is a winch on the coachroof a couple of feet from the mast base,but it doesn't look like a wire type drum. Don't know what that's for either. Any suggestions please?

 

[sailorman]

What class is she
his was the norm on more performance oriented boats until dyneema came along. the splice is more than strong enough. i still have one, the spare genoa halliard. i have changed the main & genoa to dyneema.

 

[Ardenfour]

Boat's a nicholson 30

 

[dunedin]

Quite normal for the wire to stop before the winch, and rope only round the winch. Out rope / wire splices were fine for 15 years.

Eventually the rope chafed so we replaced with a cruising dyneema - but did stretch a bit more than the wire (race spec dyneema probably even less stretch, but would have been near £300 which was ruled out)

 

[Billjratt]

my last boat had spliced wire halyards, and, like yours, the wire was on the drum when the sail was hoisted, the rope was changed a couple of times due to fraying, but I believe the wire was original (1972). It's quite easy to re-do a splice if it's you who takes it to bits in the first place. (grease helps)

 

[Ardenfour]

Sorry, I'm being a bit unclear. None of my winches have a drum suitable for wire, i think. I was unsure whether i ought to use the winch at the mast for the wire and rope. The other coaachroof winches are too far for the wire to reach, so i had the rope tail round the winch drum. I was concerned about the splice being under full halyard tension, giving way, and disappearing up the mast. Others suggest the splice should be strong enough. Thanks for all replies

 

[estarzinger]

As has been said . . .should be fine . . . the splice should be very near 'full strength'.

Just for the future . . . .if you switch from wire to dyneema, you should (probably) change the sheave, as wire sheaves usually have a quite different groove profile than one best suited for dyneema.