Replacing Halyards

[Walter Carr]

First Sailboat..Whats the trick to replacing halyards ..I noticed that the new ones have a loop on one end .



Wcarr1941@aol.com

[Bill Goldsmith]

Walter:

1. Cut the loop and shackle off the old halyard cleanly. Wrap tape around the spot where you will cut and cut right through the tape, to keep the cut clean. Use a sharp knife to avoid fraying or bulging. Heat the end with a match to seal the fibers.

2. Take the new halyard and clean up the non-loop end, removing any bulges if it was heat-sealed. If the new halyard has frayed or loose fibers at the end, cut a little off clean as well.

3. Butt the cut end of the old halyard up to the clean end of the new halyard. Tape the two ends together with one layer of duct tape or other strong sticky tape. Pull the ends apart to make sure the joint can take a few pounds of pull. Make sure the tape does not bulge out very much, or it may foul on the sheaves at the top of the mast.

4. Pull on the other end of the old halyard, which will thread the new halyard through the sheaves at the top of the mast, and bring it back down the other side. Undo the duct tape and Voila! You have a new halyard.

Bill Goldsmith
CD27 Second Chance

First Sailboat..Whats the trick to replacing halyards ..I noticed that the new ones have a loop on one end .

goldy@bestweb.net

[Jerry Axler]

Walter:

1. Cut the loop and shackle off the old halyard cleanly. Wrap tape around the spot where you will cut and cut right through the tape, to keep the cut clean. Use a sharp knife to avoid fraying or bulging. Heat the end with a match to seal the fibers.

2. Take the new halyard and clean up the non-loop end, removing any bulges if it was heat-sealed. If the new halyard has frayed or loose fibers at the end, cut a little off clean as well.

3. Butt the cut end of the old halyard up to the clean end of the new halyard. Tape the two ends together with one layer of duct tape or other strong sticky tape. Pull the ends apart to make sure the joint can take a few pounds of pull. Make sure the tape does not bulge out very much, or it may foul on the sheaves at the top of the mast.

4. Pull on the other end of the old halyard, which will thread the new halyard through the sheaves at the top of the mast, and bring it back down the other side. Undo the duct tape and Voila! You have a new halyard.

Bill Goldsmith
CD27 Second Chance

The only bit of advice I can add to this explanation is to sew the two ends together with a couple of stitches before taping them, but then again I wear suspenders with a belt:).

Jerry Axler

First Sailboat..Whats the trick to replacing halyards ..I noticed that the new ones have a loop on one end .

cutter36@erols.com

[Duncan Maio]

Walter:

1. Cut the loop and shackle off the old halyard cleanly. Wrap tape around the spot where you will cut and cut right through the tape, to keep the cut clean. Use a sharp knife to avoid fraying or bulging. Heat the end with a match to seal the fibers.

2. Take the new halyard and clean up the non-loop end, removing any bulges if it was heat-sealed. If the new halyard has frayed or loose fibers at the end, cut a little off clean as well.

3. Butt the cut end of the old halyard up to the clean end of the new halyard. Tape the two ends together with one layer of duct tape or other strong sticky tape. Pull the ends apart to make sure the joint can take a few pounds of pull. Make sure the tape does not bulge out very much, or it may foul on the sheaves at the top of the mast.

4. Pull on the other end of the old halyard, which will thread the new halyard through the sheaves at the top of the mast, and bring it back down the other side. Undo the duct tape and Voila! You have a new halyard.

Bill Goldsmith
CD27 Second Chance

First Sailboat..Whats the trick to replacing halyards ..I noticed that the new ones have a loop on one end .

Bill has the system down, except that some pre-made halyards come with an eye splice and shackle at one end, and a loop made in the cover at the other end that is designed to allow you to tie a messenger line when replacing the halyard, but is NOT designed to take any serious load (the ones I have seen are tagged with a warning label). On this type of halyard, you would follow Bill's instructions, only attach the loop end of the new halyard to the (former) shackle end of the old halyard. The alternative would be to attach a messenger line to the end of the old halyard, pull it out, then attach the same end of the messenger line to the loop on the new halyard and pull the messenger line back out.

OTOH, if the mast is coming down for the winter anyway . . .

Duncan Maio
s/v Remedy
CD27 #37
Bristol, RI



dmaio@meganet.net