Replacing Halyards

Added 03/07/2004

Tim,

if I may chime in: I don't have an 8.7 but a C-32 so you have to take my words with a grain of salt. However, I did change my halyards from wire/rope to all rope (motivated, partially, by John's comments) last summer and I did not do anything to the sheaves. It works great! I think I used 7/16 rope but am not sure anymore.

If I were you, I would get a piece of rope of acceptable diameter (like 3/8 or 7/16), just a couple feet, duct-tape it securely to the rope end of your existing halyard, and try to get it through the sheaves. Needless to say, put something else to the other end of this piece of rope so you can get the halyard back down (e.g. the other end of the halyard). If it goes through, buy the new halyard in the size that works and get it up the same way. If not, you haven't lost more than a few dollars.

If you are one of the 'belts-and-suspenders' types (lile myself), don't only tape the ropes together but also sew them together. It only takes a couple minutes. I found that it took a good pull to get the ropes through the sheaves and I felt better knowing that they were taped AND sewn. Also, I found it worked a lot better after I applied some grease to the outside of the tape.

Good luck!

--Ernst

C-32 #25 'Tavernier'

I read in the Boat U.S. Catalog than you have to be careful to make sure the Sheaves will take the load as the halyard sheaves carry twice the load of the halyard itself. How much load do I need to be concerned about? Boat US has 5/8 sheave (300 will take 300 pounds) or 5/16 (300 pounds). Will the 5/8 work with 3/8 halyard which is what I purchased to replace the wire? Is it possible that Columbia had sheaves that would work with wire or rope? Are the sheaves a standard size? Thanks for all of your assistance.

Dan

Dan,

It's possible that the sheaves could be"double grooved" by that I mean a normal .sic. 1/2' groove, with a smaller, wire size, groove worked in at the center line. Many boats had this in the past, so that spliced rope/wire halyards could be pulled out from either end.. you didn't need to take the eye off the wire end, you could pull FROM the wire end and drag a messenger through the sheave. then you tied or spliced on a new halyard and hauled it back to the original position, using the messenger line. Of course, when a sloppy rigger used an eye and shackle to join the wire and rope, all bets were off, and you would cut off the wire eye, attach a messenger, and haul it out by the rope end. then a blank wire end was attached and the wire hauled through, after which you could swage on a fitting, make an eye, use a nicro press etc. some of the later type sheaves used only the wire groove because of this.

I had a hell of a time when I used a modern( read cheap) phenolic sheave at the masthead on ASTREA, who had only one halyard, being fractional rigged. well, the steel halyard slapped around at anchor and finally chafed the rim of the sheave, which just by chance grabbed the wire as I raised the main in a rolly anchorage Duuuh? locked her up tight as a drum, with no spare halyard to go up there and fix it. finally found a taller ship in the harbor and got him to pass his main halyard shackle down over the bight in mine and haul up til the jam popped loose! I built a stainless sheave as soon as i got back to the states. it fit Closely to the masthead box, leaving no room for a second halyard jam. i know the architects among us don't like weight aloft, but i don't like shinneying up masts in a rolly anchorage!

Also fitted hounds and a strop for a jury halyard. just had a light line there most of the time, but could change up easily to a heavier line if i wanted to go aloft, or wanted to fly a masthead drifter. I'd go up and eyeball those sheaves before i went to the expense of dropping the mast and all...Just cheap, I guess!

Cheers

DR Dave