Wire halyards

[doctom]

I have a 33ft Cheoy Lee sloop with two mast winches. The main halyard is wire...I have been told that you cannot put a wire on a sheeve made for line but wonder if it goes the other way as well. Forgive my ignorance, but I just like working with line more than wire and am looking at replacing all of my halyards and thought I would get the same line for all of them. Should I stay with wire? Would i need to change out the winch if i switched?

On a related note, I currently have setup up on my boat
1) wire halyard leading aft out of the masthead presumably for the main
2) a second line leading aft out of the masthead presumably as a spare or perhaps to raise an anchor sail up the the main topping lift/backstay?
3)3 lines leading forward from the masthead presumably one for the jib halyard and one for the spinnaker and another spare? Is there another sail i should be raising?

lastly, i have a line that goes to a block midway up the mast facing forward that has a line thru it that i currently have both ends secured on a mast cleat. i have no clue as to its purpose and have not been able to get a consensus from other sailors on my dock. Any ideas? I dont have a spinnaker so am not familar with all the lines that it requires but thought maybe it is to secure the top of the spinnaker pole to the mast when it is stowed? I was told it was for a baby stay to run up a storm jib...but I havent seen anything like it on anyone else's boat and dont like the idea of a stay attached to a cleat in the middle of my foredeck.

Appreciative of any comments, opinions or advice in advance,
Mike

[Gene T]

Originally Posted by doctom

I have a 33ft Cheoy Lee sloop with two mast winches. The main halyard is wire...I have been told that you cannot put a wire on a sheeve made for line but wonder if it goes the other way as well. Forgive my ignorance, but I just like working with line more than wire and am looking at replacing all of my halyards and thought I would get the same line for all of them. Should I stay with wire? Would i need to change out the winch if i switched?

Generally you should not have to change anything to just replace the wires with line, you must make certain the sheaves are large enough for the line however. There are a few winches that only work with wire but they are rare.

Originally Posted by doctom

On a related note, I currently have setup up on my boat
1) wire halyard leading aft out of the masthead presumably for the main
2) a second line leading aft out of the masthead presumably as a spare or perhaps to raise an anchor sail up the the main topping lift/backstay?
3)3 lines leading forward from the masthead presumably one for the jib halyard and one for the spinnaker and another spare? Is there another sail i should be raising?

Spares are good.

Originally Posted by doctom

lastly, i have a line that goes to a block midway up the mast facing forward that has a line thru it that i currently have both ends secured on a mast cleat. i have no clue as to its purpose and have not been able to get a consensus from other sailors on my dock. Any ideas? I dont have a spinnaker so am not familar with all the lines that it requires but thought maybe it is to secure the top of the spinnaker pole to the mast when it is stowed? I was told it was for a baby stay to run up a storm jib...but I havent seen anything like it on anyone else's boat and dont like the idea of a stay attached to a cleat in the middle of my foredeck.

Spinnaker pole lift, hooks to the center of the spinnaker pole and carries the weight of the pole. If you have a track on the front of the mast longer than the spin pole then you can hook the line to the car, hoist the pole and store it against the mast.

Originally Posted by doctom

Appreciative of any comments, opinions or advice in advance,
Mike

[wildcard]

There was a recent thread on this that was very good. It explained in great detail the three different kinds of shives and which were wire only/line only/ combo. I do not rember the title but Im sure a search will turn it up. Very recent like in the last three months?...Wire shives will cut line, line shives will get cut with wire, ect...Good stuff from people that know.

[sailingdog]

Wire sheaves are generally v-shaped in groove profile. V-shaped grooves will damage rope, and cause them to wear very rapidly. Rope sheaves are u-shaped in profile. Also, the wire sheaves may be too narrow, since generally, line of the same strength will be of larger diameter.

Generally, you'll be better off with high-tech, Spectra-core or Dyneema-core lines rather than wire for your halyards. The new high-tech lines have about the same stretch as the wire, but are far kinder on the hands and far lighter.

The winches, if they are reel-winches, which are wire-only.... will need to be switched out. Reel-winches are damn dangerous, and if you're not careful with them, they can hurt you pretty badly.


As for the mast top setup. The two lines led aft are the main halyard and the topping lift. Two of the lines forward are the jib halyard and the spinnaker halyard.

The last one may be a topping lift for a spinnaker pole, but that is more likely the smaller block that is mounted facing fowards on the mast. If you had a spinnaker pole track mounted on the mast, the forward block one might be for a pole end uphaul/downhaul, and the mast-top would then be used as a pole topping lift.

[USCGRET1990]

My halyards are half wire and half line. The wire runs through the top sheaves
and the line goes through the lower sheaves and to the winches. I like it that way, a little less stretch, but easier to work with.

[pigslo]

My sheaves will take either as there is a small groove in the big groove.