So I finally bit the bullet and bought a bunch of new ATX Spinlock rope clutches for my boat and installed them yesterday. It was dark by the time I finished and I went to lead the halyards through just before leaving the boat. The two genoa halliards went through just fine but the main halyard which is slightly thicker as well as the vang and reefing lines would not. Of course it doesn't help that when pushing them through the (admittedly fairly old) outer sheaths tend to bunch up and get thicker The clutches are supposed to take 8- 14 mm lines and I'm sure my main halliard is not over 14 mm and is probably only 12. Any trick to getting these through apart from using whipping twine with a tail and pulling them through?

Get a pearl catch. These are invaluable yachts, for picking up little bits that fall into inaccessible places, threading lines through clutches etc etc. Jaycar have them. Or go pov and use a bit of coat-hanger and electrical tape.

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julesmoto said..
So I finally bit the bullet and bought a bunch of new ATX Spinlock rope clutches for my boat and installed them yesterday. It was dark by the time I finished and I went to lead the halyards through just before leaving the boat. The two genoa halliards went through just fine but the main halyard which is slightly thicker as well as the vang and reefing lines would not. Of course it doesn't help that when pushing them through the (admittedly fairly old) outer sheaths tend to bunch up and get thicker The clutches are supposed to take 8- 14 mm lines and I'm sure my main halliard is not over 14 mm and is probably only 12. Any trick to getting these through apart from using whipping twine with a tail and pulling them through?

Some work better if you unclutch it not fully. Look through the feed guides as you operate the clutch lever and you may see it close a bit once the clutch is fully open , I had this problem previously and just needed to close the clutch lever a slight bit which actually opened the hole a pinch bigger.

Thanks guys for your awesome suggestions. I will go to the boat tomorrow armed with daylight, more knowledge, a new Pearl catch and some coat hanger wire as well as a new roll of whipping twine.
My sailmaker confirm that after 6 weeks he finally has my cloth from Germany and is starting on my sails. Hopefully he also pre-ordered the luff hardware. Should be a good Christmas :-)

... or thread one of the the Genoa halyards back through the main halyard clutch, use some painter's tape or electrical tape to attach the main halyard end-to-end, and pull it through.

I have a piece of 2mm 316 weld rod with a hook on one end in the kit, specifically for draging halyards through clutches.