What is the appropriate rope construction for a topping lift?

Ours is made of absolutely nothing.
The vang strut will hold the boom up enough.

If you have one, then low stretch is good, until you forget to ease it enough....
 
Mine is braid on braid, I thought it was more for the look than the practicality but having just removed it for washing and put a temporary three strand in place I found that the three strand was harder to grip to pull on and the cam cleat it passes through doesn't grip so well.
 
lw395 said:
The vang strut will hold the boom up enough.
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As does ours but the topping lift is useful for scandalising the main and for hoiking the boom higher than my head when we're berthed. Also handy for safety line when ascending the mast with the halyard and as a backup halyard.

My choice is braid on braid. Compromise between stretchiness for some of those tasks and unstretchiness for others.
 
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Conventionally, in boats where all the halyards are handled at the mast, three-strand laid rope, so that it is immediately recognisable in the dark.

(But now I don't have topping lifts or vangs and everything comes back to the cockpit.)
 
Ours is braid but I changed it down from its original size. It makes a delightful hum when in harbour if it has the weight of the boom on it and there is a light breeze. It is still strong enough to act as a spare when I go up the mast, I hope.
 
I suspect that the weight of Minns boom precludes anything but a hydraulic vang strut. So topping lift it must be and braid on braid seems the optimum material and even with a good vang a topping lift is desirable for the reasons almost everyone has given.
 
Some boats use a wire fixed at the masthead and a small tackle at the clew end of the boom.

You can't scandalise a main with most kicker struts.
If you want to raise the boom in harbour, you can take the halyard back.
If the kit is right for it, reefing works very smoothly with no topping lift.
If you've worked a boat with such a setup, you wonder why anyone would bother.
Other boats, it is very handy.

A push-pull vang strut is a nice option, one of my smaller boats had a neat lever kicker which could also raise the boom. A bit of a '70s' solution though?

I think rope choice is going to be pretty much as per main halyard, you might as well make it a spare halyard and it will have to resist people heaving the sheet tight in harbour....
Assuming the masthead sheave is good for it of course. On a big boat, the sheave might be for wire?
 
Thick 3 strand, it's nice to grip, over a single block aloft, rigged to advantage to give a much-needed 2:1 for my heavy boom.
One each side, which is also very useful as you can always use the windward topper.
I crewed a heavy bermudan once (never again!) she has no topping lifts, a hydraulic kicker strut, in-boom roller reefing and a boom brake, an absolutely lethal combination!
 
Used 3 x stand and braid on braid. No big deal which type, there is nothing special about a topping lift, it just needs to be strong enough. My topping lift goes through the truck on the opposite side of the main halyard, it is braid on braid polyester, smaller diameter than the main halyard. Some people want the topping lift to be the same diameter as the main halyard so they can use it as back up main halyard.

I would recommend a braid on braid polyester, longer than required so it can be used for other things as well e.g. MOB recovery, emergency shroud.

I never got the claim that they have a hard life, they just sit there holding up the boom or slightly slack, about the easiest life on the boat when it comes to running rigging.
 
Fr J Hackett said:
I suspect that the weight of Minns boom precludes anything but a hydraulic vang strut. So topping lift it must be and braid on braid seems the optimum material and even with a good vang a topping lift is desirable for the reasons almost everyone has given.
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Absolutely. Stretchy stuff? Nah forget it, that boom weighs a lot. Actually, I wouldnt use stretchy on any yacht for a topping lift.

Personally.
 
PetiteFleur said:
Get a Barton Boom Strut and you won't need a topping lift. Then it becomes an emergency main halyard, tied to the backstay.
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Not sure a Barton Boomstrut will cope with Minn's quite big new boat....
I've always used three-strand, but had enough spare prestretched braided dacron handy and used that at last change.
 
BlowingOldBoots said:
I never got the claim that they have a hard life, they just sit there holding up the boom or slightly slack, about the easiest life on the boat when it comes to running rigging.
Click to expand...

Mine ended up on deck after not much of a rolly night. Frayed through. Was only there as a halyard backup. New rope, too, so it's life must have been hard enough. Will have to replace sheaves, I think.
 
I think topping lifts can have a hard life because they spend a lot of time semi-slack, fretting at the masthead sheave.
Also maybe people don't think they're worth the cost of a new bit of rope, so don't change them as often as the halyard?
They are quite often sordid bits of rope which I'd not trust my weight on.
 
On reflection, I think I would now choose the most garish psychedelic coloured rope
obtainable.

I think everyone who has sailed, must have at sometime released the wrong line and ended up with a sore head.
 
For climbing convenience, bouncy.

For a good topping lift which doesn’t let the boom fall dangerously low in a seaway and which doubles up as a spare halyard, then 100% go for low stretch. I’d personally go for the latter every time.
 
Marlowbraid for both Halyard and topping lift. Marlowbraid is three strand polyester core with a braided polyester cover and has greater strength and less stretch than equivalent sized braid on braid.
 
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