[kgs113]

I replaced my wire and rope halyards with 3/16 Amsteel spliced to 3/8 double braid. My boat is a Cal 25. Put a toggle on the end and am very pleased with the results. Hang on to the halyard carefully when taking it off your sails because the double braid is heavier and the halyard will sky. Don't ask me how I know.

 

[ColumbiaMkII]

I was wondering if you pulled this off in the Columbia 26? I am about to change mine and i don't like surprises. I have a 69 columbia 26mkII i just bought for $600 and it needs new running rigging and I want to ditch the wire. i bought some amsteal 5/16 and spliced that onto 3/8 newengland sta-set. i am worried about the sheaves being too small

 

[SloopJonB]

Unless you have reel winches with entirely wire halyards, the sheaves will be able to take rope as well - they have to accommodate the rope tails. I have changed rope to wire halyards to all rope several times with no sheave problems.

If you have reels with all wire halyards the sheaves can be too narrow to accommodate anything larger in diameter than the wire you currently have.

 

[RichH]

I was wondering if you pulled this off in the Columbia 26? I am about to change mine and i don't like surprises. I have a 69 columbia 26mkII i just bought for $600 and it needs new running rigging and I want to ditch the wire. i bought some amsteal 5/16 and spliced that onto 3/8 newengland sta-set. i am worried about the sheaves being too small

What you should be concerned about is that the 'good' wire-rope halyard systems used a sheave with a double groove in the face of the the sheave 'wheel' - one groove for the larger rope section and an additional smaller groove in the middle of the 'rope face' for the wire .... the transition between the two can be quite sharp. Such didnt matter on a rope-wire halyard as the rope section didnt bear any strain as it was simply a messenger for the wire section; the rope didnt bear any strain. Such wire-rope systems had the (ball) cleat near the top of the mast and the wire had a series of 'balls' swaged to the wire that engaged the ball, etc. cleat. Still a damn good system where used correctly - IMO.