Sewing question - butt joint two halyards

[csoule13]

In prep of going up the mast for the first time, I thought having a new main halyard would be prudent. Shows up in a few days from Cajun ropes. Hooray.

Does anyone have a tutorial on how to go about sewing the old halyard to the new to make sure pulling it through the mast doesn't end in disaster? Sailrite has a video about it, but that part is sort of waved by. Just run the thread through bunch of times, good to go. As this is a new skill for me, I was hoping for something a little more detailed.

Thanks,
Chris

[bgephart]

I just finished installing new halyards on my CD-25 this week. I have done this several times over the last 35 years with this boat. I simply butt the old and new together with really good 3M duct tape and then rub the tape vigorously between my hands to assure good adhesion and flexibility. Then gently hoist the OLD halyard so it leads the combined lines through the pulleys on top of the mast. I have never had a problem.

Bob Gephart - Savannah

[tjr818]

We sew them together with a stitch or two and then wrap with the blue painters tape for a smooth transition. The key is to pay attention to the feed, don’t force anything. We have done this at least a hundred times in 50 years of sailing.

[Typhoon4Fun]

I simply butt the old and new together with really good 3M duct tape and then rub the tape vigorously between my hands to assure good adhesion and flexibility.

I have done the same but also used a short length of shoelace-size line to connect the two halyards with rolling hitches, just in case the tape failed. I tape over the knots. The tape hasn't failed though.

[Steve Laume]

Taping will make you nervous, stitching will make you confident.

Both will probably work so it is a matter of how you want to feel, Steve.

[Paul D.]

I do a version of this each year as I run messenger lines over the winter. Some times I've gotten it wrong and had to re reeve the halyards the hard way climbing up the mast with them. Tim is spot on about care when the joint goes through the sheaves at the crane. I give the incoming line side a flip to send a curve up the line and decrease the angle that the line enters the sheaves. Then smartly but gently pull through the other side at the exact moment. I too suggest threading a needle and thread a few times through both ends as suggested.

Having said this, I still pull down the spinnaker halyard without a messenger line so I need to go up the mast each spring, check out all the fittings and spray some McLube on the mast track. (My sails understand gravity and come down when told!)

Good luck, new halyards are a pleasure.

[BernieA]

I sew a few stitches, then take a few wraps of electrical tape. I also tug pretty hard on the splice to be sure it holds. I am pretty careful as the splice goes around the sheave. Seems to work every time.

[csoule13]

Question - Is there a tutorial on the technique to stitch two halyards together.

Answer - Tape.
Answer - Tape
Answer - Just do the thing

I love the online communities, but the whole answer the question with an unrelated answer is a pet peeve.

Steve, is there a tutorial or video on the best technique to stitch this together, because there no way in hell I'm going to trust some painters tape to hold on this.

[Jim Walsh]

Question - Is there a tutorial on the technique to stitch two halyards together.

Answer - Tape.
Answer - Tape
Answer - Just do the thing

I love the online communities, but the whole answer the question with an unrelated answer is a pet peeve.

Steve, is there a tutorial or video on the best technique to stitch this together, because there no way in hell I'm going to trust some painters tape to hold on this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4BYQY_2jbU

Video of stitching butt ends together.

[Typhoon4Fun]

I love the online communities, but the whole answer the question with an unrelated answer is a pet peeve.

Ha! Fair enough. But if you can't stand (sometimes irrelevant) opinions and pontification, perhaps best to stick to http://www.google.com

[Carl Thunberg]

Do you have a sail palm, whipping needle, and whipping thread? If not, you can buy a starter whipping kit at Defender, West Marine, Hamilton Marine or even Amazon. The stitch itself is easier to do than explain. Your first step is to run your threaded whipping needle through one of the halyards. Hold the butt ends together and run your whipping needle the opposite direction through the other halyard and pull snug. Rotate 90 degrees and repeat the process as many times as you feel are secure. You don't even need to finish it off because this only needs to hold for a short time. I finish the whole thing off with electrical tape. Don't go too thick on the tape or it won't go through the sheave. Give it a good tug to make sure it's secure. Like I said, it's easier to do than explain.

While you have your whipping kit handy, practice whipping the ends of the halyards. It's a skill that's easily acquired. It takes practice to make it look neat and tidy.

Edit: How did I miss the Youtube link?

[Steve Laume]

Jim, definitely, gets a star for paying attention in class and giving the correct answer.

Now I will offer some advise unrelated to the original question. The guy in the video uses a hot knife, which is nice if you have one and electricity to power it. I bought, just the tip for my soldering gun. When I am at home and it works well. I find that I am on the boat when trimming lines most of the time. I always wrap the line with rigging or electrical tape and then cut it to get a nice clean end. Once it was cut I would use a Bic lighter to melt the end. Most of the time there is enough breeze that I had to do it down below or inside my shirt with my head in the neck hole and huffing the fumes. This might explain a few things.

I finally discovered the mini butane touch. What a joy it is! Much hotter than a lighter and will work in strong winds. It melts the ends like butter and then all you need to do is remove the tape and whip the end of the line to make it proper.

There is so much I should have known a long time ago, Steve.
https://www.amazon.com/butane-mini-tor ... ini+torch

[ghockaday]

If you can picture this, its double braid, cut off the melted end, slide the cover back about 6 inches and cut the core, leave the cover long. Now lide the cover back on the old halyard and cut the cover. Tape the core to the end of a coat harder or fid if you have them and pull the core of one into the cover of the other. Put as many stitches as you think it needs and it should feed right around the shive. If this made no since, watch a video on butt splicing two lines. Dennis

[John Stone]

I probably can’t add much to this discussion. Pulled plenty of halyards. I would not recommend using only tape to butt splice two lines. You might get away with it but as Steve said it would make me nervous. If you lose your halyard at a min you are going to make a trip to the top. But the issue is bigger than that. Dropping a halyard down a mast while another halyard is already inside the spar provides a high probability the new halyard will get a wrap or two around the other halyard. Wraps like that have only negative consequences. So providing the halyard you are replacing doesn’t already have a wrap you are much better to sew the ends together. It’s simple. The most timing consuming part is simply getting the supplies together. Sail needle and sail thread. The sewing takes maybe 60 seconds.

I normally apply a couple wraps of tape over the butt joint. Just to keep it aligned as the splice rides over the sheave. I have use electrical and painters tape. The nice thing about painters tape is it’s so thin so a couple wraps add little to the diameter of the line. It does not take much to jam up some sheaves. So less is more when it comes to tape...unless you are taping instead of sewing. In which case I don’t have a comment other than to say it’s not something I would want to do for internal halyards.

[Joe Myerson]

FWIW, I stitched the ends of the old and new halyard together with whipping twine, then whipped the whole thing. It worked well. I have a sailmaker's palm. And, like Steve, I recently bought a small butane torch with what is supposed to be a hot knife. It helps seal the ends of lines cut on the water.

I suppose that electrical tape would also work to hold the stitched ends together, but I had more confidence in the whipping. Having external halyards one my 25D makes this operation a lot less stressful, of course.

Good luck and Happy Thanksgiving.

--Joe