replace halyard

dogmandave · #1 (**permalink**) 03-01-2007

I need to replace the halyard for my mailsial. It is a wire and rope halyard. How can I replace it without climbing the mast? The old halyard is still in place.

Giulietta · #2 (**permalink**) 03-01-2007

Tie the new to the old...and pull.....till the new end is in your hand....

Idiens · #3 (**permalink**) 03-01-2007

If you have swaged thingies fitted on the old halyard, they may need to be removed before the halyard will pass. (Time to check out your favourite method of cutting wire rope.) The new halyard will need the thingies swaged on after it has been fitted in the mast.

TrueBlue · #4 (**permalink**) 03-01-2007

Instead of simply tieing (which could bind in the masthead sheave), it's best to stitch the new line, end-to-end, to the old rope tailed halyard.

sailingdog · #5 (**permalink**) 03-01-2007

The problem you'll have is that the old halyard is a wire-to-rope spliced halyard...and you need to get a new halyard that is also wire-to-rope... otherwise the sheave at the masthead will be the wrong size. What you should probably do is tie a small messenger line to the wire section and pull that up the outside of the mast and down and out the bottom. Then attach the wire part of the new halyard to it and use the messenger line to pull the wire up the mast and out over the masthead sheave. If you don't it this way, you'll be trying to pull the rope through the masthead sheave, which is probably a very tight fit for it, as the wire is probably a much smaller diameter than the rope is.

SailorMitch · #6 (**permalink**) 03-01-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by sailingdog

The problem you'll have is that the old halyard is a wire-to-rope spliced halyard...and you need to get a new halyard that is also wire-to-rope... otherwise the sheave at the masthead will be the wrong size. What you should probably do is tie a small messenger line to the wire section and pull that up the outside of the mast and down and out the bottom. Then attach the wire part of the new halyard to it and use the messenger line to pull the wire up the mast and out over the masthead sheave. If you don't it this way, you'll be trying to pull the rope through the masthead sheave, which is probably a very tight fit for it, as the wire is probably a much smaller diameter than the rope is.

Dog -- As for your premise in this post that the sheave may be too small for rope, that may not be the case. Depends on what size sheave the builder used up there to begin with of course. On my P-33-2 (1988) when I replaced the wire/rope halyards 3 years ago, the new 3/8 inch rope halyards fit just fine because the sheaves Pearson used were actually for a rope halyard. I didn't know this at the time because I just went ahead and pulled through the new halyard to see if it would fit. It did just fine. The following year I took the mast down and found that the sheaves were probably meant for all rope. (I replaced all the sheaves at that point with aluminum ones.)

As for pulling in the new halyard without having to remove any shackles that may be spliced on, secure a messenger line to the ass end of the current halyard and pull it through to remove the old halyard. Then secure the ass end of the new halyard to that same end of the messenger line and pull it through the other way. Voila -- no mess with splices. I secure the ends together with duct tape. Works fine and is a flexible joint to go over the sheave. But tug on it hard first to test it!

sailingdog · #7 (**permalink**) 03-01-2007

Mitch-

It is a pretty common problem to have a narrower sheave at the masthead on a wire-to-rope halyard.

PBzeer · #8 (**permalink**) 03-01-2007

I also use duct tape to attach my new to old. Has worked well for me. But as was said, test it well first.

SailorMitch · #9 (**permalink**) 03-01-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by sailingdog

Mitch-

It is a pretty common problem to have a narrower sheave at the masthead on a wire-to-rope halyard.

Dawg -- I know it's common, but I was only trying to point out that it's not 100 percent of the time. It's easy enough to check out beforehand -- tape a 3/8 inch (pick your size) line to the current ass end of the halyard and haul it up to the top. If the line goes through OK, then maybe you own a 1988 Pearson with fat sheaves at the top????? If it sticks, then you better hope your tape job was good when you try to haul it back down.

sailingdog · #10 (**permalink**) 03-01-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by SailorMitch

Dawg -- I know it's common, but I was only trying to point out that it's not 100 percent of the time. It's easy enough to check out beforehand -- tape a 3/8 inch (pick your size) line to the current ass end of the halyard and haul it up to the top. If the line goes through OK, then maybe you own a 1988 Pearson with fat sheaves at the top????? If it sticks, then you better hope your tape job was good when you try to haul it back down.

Yes, but if you've done a poor job of taping, and hauled too hard going up...you're likely to end up going up the stick.... and doing it my way avoids almost any risk of that.

You can work smart or you can do a half-assed job of it and get screwed for it.