I need to replace my main halyard. Does anyone on here know how to splice one to the other so I don't have to get someone to climb to the top.
maybe a diagram?

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Moppo said..
I need to replace my main halyard. Does anyone on here know how to splice one to the other so I don't have to get someone to climb to the top.
maybe a diagram?

Best bet is to butt joint the two halyards and stitch the halyards together. Cheat and melt the ends together first. The idea is to make it neat so it passes over and through the pulley's etc.

I just butt stitch them together and a but of tape.

Agree with the above two posts. We recently replaced our main and jib halyards on a 35ft yacht.

We butt joined the two lines by stitching between them with sail makers twine; about 8 to a dozen stitches taken far enough into each line that it wouldn't easily pull out by unraveling the lay of the plait of the rope (so about 50mm in). I tried to keep the tension on each stitch even so that all the pressure wasn't taken by one stitch. Then I taped the join up and carefully (and slowly) pulled it through.

We did expect the lines to be loaded at any point of the pull and they weren't.

We had no dramas about it

If you have an eye in the end of the halyard - most likely - then you will find it hard to pull that through the sheave. And if you do have an eye and you butt-butt the old and new ends together, you'll end up with the halyard facing the wrong way

I just tape a piece of VB cord to the old halyard, pull it right through, then reverse the process to get the new one in. It doesn't take much tape - blue masking is what I use - and it's easy. One piece of cord lasts a long time; my halyards see a lot of salt water so I run them through the wash occasionally to keep them supple.

When I make all my halyards (mine and customers) I put an eye in the bottom end by pulling out and cutting off about a foot of core, milk the cover back over and then tuck the cover back inside itself.

The as sydchris said above, tie a piece of VB cord to the loop in the bottom end and pull through, then pull the new halyard through in reverse.
Much easier to do this rather than try and pull two halyards joined together through.

Also this keeps the bottom end of the new halyard neat and stops it fraying.

I hope this is not a Dumb question. What is vb cord

VB cord - used to control window coverings originating in Venice

A search on a well known auction site reveals 100m of 2.5mm for sale for around the $20 mark, including postage. Quite sufficient for non-structural purposes.

Hi Guy's new to the forum,

This video is a bit lengthy but you get the idea in the end first time i had to change a halyard I did it this way. I have also had to use a fid to splice the two ropes together



Cheers Paul

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rumblefish said..
When I make all my halyards (mine and customers) I put an eye in the bottom end by pulling out and cutting off about a foot of core, milk the cover back over and then tuck the cover back inside itself.

The as sydchris said above, tie a piece of VB cord to the loop in the bottom end and pull through, then pull the new halyard through in reverse.
Much easier to do this rather than try and pull two halyards joined together through.

Also this keeps the bottom end of the new halyard neat and stops it fraying.

So simple to do and means that the replacement can be made off the boat, no stitching etc.

Depending on your how tight the run is, it is really important that the splice/join has no lumps and is flexible.

When I replaced my halyard, I had a lot of trouble getting the splice around the top sheave.

Andrew

Whats the deal with replacing wire halyards? My last boat was small and just had regular line as halyards but this boat has wire cored halyards. Should I do the VB trick and then take the halyards to a professional to make new ones, then feed the new ones back in using the VB cord?

It doesnt look like I can make my own wire halyards.

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FelixdeCat said..
Whats the deal with replacing wire halyards? My last boat was small and just had regular line as halyards but this boat has wire cored halyards. Should I do the VB trick and then take the halyards to a professional to make new ones, then feed the new ones back in using the VB cord?

It doesnt look like I can make my own wire halyards.

The previous owner of my boat replaced old wire halyards and the 8mm spectra seems to run over the old sheaves with no issues.

A

Felix just replace with spectra. The sheaves may be different but spectra should be fine anyway.

As for splices, I never bother. I don't use shackles on most halyards so a knot is fine for me. Simple, cheaper and easier.

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Kankama said..
As for splices, I never bother. I don't use shackles on most halyards so a knot is fine for me. Simple, cheaper and easier.

I believe spectra halyards are the best way to go but spectra I am told may fail on sharp bends. I am re-rigging with spectra and at the sail end, bending it around a thimble, knotting it with a bowline and stitching the bight and tail of the knot with substantial sail twine.

Doing it that way means you can attach a swivel snap shackle to the end of the halyard and not be bothered tying a knot each time you attach the halyard to the sail.

I am sort of assuming that is what you do Kankama. Splices are a pain in the neck......and hands when you have to do them.

When we replaced our halyards we found the shackle had been secured to the halyard by the original professional riggers by a knot I wasn't familiar with. After some research we found it was a "Poacher's Knot". It is meant to be less prone to slipping on Spectra Lines than a bowline and won't shake undone (like a bowline can). But once loaded, it can only really be cut off; not a problem on a halyard.

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cisco said..

Kankama said..
As for splices, I never bother. I don't use shackles on most halyards so a knot is fine for me. Simple, cheaper and easier.

I believe spectra halyards are the best way to go but spectra I am told may fail on sharp bends. I am re-rigging with spectra and at the sail end, bending it around a thimble, knotting it with a bowline and stitching the bight and tail of the knot with substantial sail twine.

Doing it that way means you can attach a swivel snap shackle to the end of the halyard and not be bothered tying a knot each time you attach the halyard to the sail.

I am sort of assuming that is what you do Kankama. Splices are a pain in the neck......and hands when you have to do them.

Yeah don't splice!!! Well not full covered spectra splice anyway!!!

OK, (and I'm a rigger so I do this a bit!!) firstly if you do a full covered eye splice you will just end up with a big, stiff piece of rope just where you don't want it, right at the sail end. Ever wonder why soooo many boats are hard to pull the last 2 feet of main halyard up?? It's because of the stiff splice usually!
Option 1 - A halyard knot
Works better than a bowline as it locks down on the shackle and not only means you can hoist higher but also less wear as with a bowline the shackle can move on the rope.
As for weakening the rope as Cisco has said, not usually an issue on non-grand prix boats. Let's say you have a standard sort of masthead 30 footer. Your main halyard loads would never exceed 1000kg and your genoa halyards 1250kg. So if you put 10mm spectra as halyards it has a 5300kg break, think a knot that might weaken 50% will be fine!!
A couple of notes on the halyard knot, the shackle diameter has to be less than the line diameter and once tight you will never get undone, so cut the knot out and end for end your halyard every so often.

Option 2 - A tip splice with brummel. This is where you join a length of dyneema to the core of your spectra and then put a brummel locking splice in the end of the dyneema.
This takes a bit of time and effort but you can end up with very neat halyards with no knots and no stiff section passing through the blocks. You can get as fancy as you like and make the tip very long to save weight (stopping just short of clutcghes at biggest reef) or just 3-4m at the end. You can change out tips fairly easily if they chafe.

Oh and another tio, for main and jib halyards on boats upto about 35ft, use cheap commodity S/S captive pin shackles.
www.bridco.com.au/Captive-Pin-D-Shackle.html Using a halyard knot they lock into the knot and you will loose the pin, and they are cheap!!!

Thanks Tamble and rumblefish. I like that Poacher's Knot as the tail points back up the line and can be easily stitched onto the line.

I have enough swivel and non swivel snap shackles for the job plus some spares. I have to polish the pins a little so they snap closed easier instead of having to pull the pin to get them closed.

On my main halyard I have one of these which due to it's sharp edges I am thinking will not be suitable for the halyard or poacher's knot. Would that be right??

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cisco said..
Thanks Tamble and rumblefish. I like that Poacher's Knot as the tail points back up the line and can be easily stitched onto the line.

I have enough swivel and non swivel snap shackles for the job plus some spares. I have to polish the pins a little so they snap closed easier instead of having to pull the pin to get them closed.

On my main halyard I have one of these which due to it's sharp edges I am thinking will not be suitable for the halyard or poacher's knot. Would that be right??

I am no expert but these shackles look more reliable than the quick release ones. These are the ones I saw on all the training boats I have been on anyway.

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cisco said..
Thanks Tamble and rumblefish. I like that Poacher's Knot as the tail points back up the line and can be easily stitched onto the line.

I have enough swivel and non swivel snap shackles for the job plus some spares. I have to polish the pins a little so they snap closed easier instead of having to pull the pin to get them closed.

On my main halyard I have one of these which due to it's sharp edges I am thinking will not be suitable for the halyard or poacher's knot. Would that be right??

The Wichard version of that is rounded and works well

I've found that putting the two halyards end to end and then just using Gorilla tape to hold them together works fine. I've done this a number of times.
I agree with using a knot rather than a splice.
One more thing. Buy your halyards 5' - 10' longer than needed. Every year cut off the shackle and move the halyards forward by 1' . This will move the wear spots on the halyard and make them last for many years. I've got 4 halyards on my boat and every year I move them all up by 1'. Saves me a ton of money.

I use a different halyard knot straight to the sails headboard. I use a furling headsail and don't change mainsails often so there is no point wasting a shackle and having excess weight were it's not needed.
The knot is the same as this but most times I use 3 turns instead of two. It's a common knot in the fishing industry.

http://www.sailfeed.com/2015/01/knot-of-the-year-award-the-obscure-but-ultimately-very-useful-halyard-knot-2/

All done. I sewed them together and it rolled through the pulley with ease. Now how to tie that knot.

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Ramona said..
I use a different halyard knot straight to the sails headboard. I use a furling headsail and don't change mainsails often so there is no point wasting a shackle and having excess weight were it's not needed.
The knot is the same as this but most times I use 3 turns instead of two. It's a common knot in the fishing industry.

http://www.sailfeed.com/2015/01/knot-of-the-year-award-the-obscure-but-ultimately-very-useful-halyard-knot-2/

It looks like the Poacher's knot by a different name Ramona.

What interests me is that you tie it directly to the sail (as I read your post anyway).
I find this knot jambs into something unable to be anything but cut off. OK if its on a shackle; but what do you do when you want to remove the sail such as for a repair. Does the third turn affect that?

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Tamble said..

Ramona said..
I use a different halyard knot straight to the sails headboard. I use a furling headsail and don't change mainsails often so there is no point wasting a shackle and having excess weight were it's not needed.
The knot is the same as this but most times I use 3 turns instead of two. It's a common knot in the fishing industry.

http://www.sailfeed.com/2015/01/knot-of-the-year-award-the-obscure-but-ultimately-very-useful-halyard-knot-2/

It looks like the Poacher's knot by a different name Ramona.

What interests me is that you tie it directly to the sail (as I read your post anyway).
I find this knot jambs into something unable to be anything but cut off. OK if its on a shackle; but what do you do when you want to remove the sail such as for a repair. Does the third turn affect that?

It's actually a fish hook knot we used my fishing vessel, we always called it the kingfish knot. New deckhands were always taught it first up. Works particularly well with mono once you get to 125 pounds and up.
It pulls tight and it's usually used in a permanent situation but it can be pulled apart by folding the turns back and sliding the knot open. Works well with braided rope. Mono wont come apart of course.

Ok so I pulled the old halyard out and replaced with VB cord temporarily. So how do I figure out what size Spectra I need to replace it with?

My Cat's about same size as yours and rigger went with 8mm. Plenty strong enough and still large enough to grab hold of and fit to winch.

Check out what size rope is the minimum diameter for your rope clutches too.

Ok 8mm sounds ok. The old halyard was 5mm wire with 10mm single braid laid over the winch end. I won't know much about the sheaves until after I buy a new halyard and get up there to get a closer look. I might have to change sheaves if I find they are those combination type sheaves for wire halyards. We will see!

Don't be afraid to try splicing your new Halyards (vice using the halyard knot shown above).
You can buy a set of splicing fids from WW (slightly cheaper on the internet but not much) and there are plenty of tutorials on YouTube.

I only had to cut my first attempt off, it's been an interesting skill to learn and only took me a couple of hours to learn and get it to the point I'm willing to trust the yacht to it.