I hear that the Santa Cruz harbor entrance channel may open up this coming weekend.
I went to the boat for a "quick" stop and looked at running rigging for the main and jib. I noticed chafe on both halyards so I cut the jib halyard short. I'll need to learn to put a whipping on that halyard so I bought waxed whipping twine.
The main halyard is spliced on the main's head grommet so I'll need to learn that too. I don't have the kit to do that so it's yet another little something I need to acquire.
I noticed the roller on one of the jib cars (MERRIMAN) is damaged (slightly deformed) but it looks like I can't repair that. It'll likely still work as it is ... I couldn't find one used on eBay ...
Free advice, for what it's worth... One way of getting more life out of a halyard is to "end-for-end" the line. The tail end usually has had way less wear/chafe. Also, when buying new halyards, make them a little long. This makes it easier to end-for-end and/or cut some off.
Main halyards aren't usually spliced to the sail. That would be most unusual. Usually, they are spliced or knoted to a shackle. Depending on the type of line involved, splicing used line (e.g. double braid) is very difficult as the line has been "loaded" and the fibers stretched together. There has been a lot of testing and discussion about how much splices or knots reduce line strength. In my opinion this has been over emphasized. An advantage of knoting your main halyard to the halyard shackle is that then it's relatively easy to remove the shackle to either cut off a length or for end-for-ending. I have successfully used a version of "Fisherman's Bend" to attached halyard shackles.
As an aside, I once raced on a Columbia 50 out of Santa Barbara that had no shackles, snap shackles or otherwise. All halyards and sheets were tied on. I'm not sure why...
Last edited by Dazzler; 03-06-2017 at 03:03 PM.
End for end ... isn't it enough to cut 2-3 feet from the line (where the sail heads is attached)? Or is the idea that if I swap the line I get to use a part that's had little to no tension? It sounds like the best thing to do would be a combo of both approaches: cut 2-3 feet off a couple of times, swap, cut 2-3 feet off a couple of times?
Oops ... I meant shackle ... newbie ...
Actually doing both makes a halyard a lot less expensive. Swapping ends gives you twice the life. Cutting off a few feet and then swapping four times the life? I could go on. For a few extra bucks on the initial purchase you save a bundle in the long run.
I use the shackle/fishermen's bend on my halyards -- at the moment HALYARD.
But, when I had my Santana 22 I tied all halyards with bowlines; all the sails came off at the end of the day. Bowlines with the knots on the jib/genoa sheets tied so the "smooth" side of the knot was inward -- slid past the shroud
without catching.
I'll have to verify this but I think the chafing may have been from the clutch.
Just wondering ... Where a shackle failed ... Would the knot have failed too? I mean what makes the knot stronger? Was the shackle undersized?
Don't mean to highjack my own thread, which is now there to chronicle my slow progress :-)
When I said I was starting checklists ... Well, looking back those were not checklists ... I need to start planning ...
I won't be able to do the qualifier as right after I'm taking two weeks off for more Clipper training. I'm thinking of doing it just a few days before, starting Saturday and ending 4th of July. I'm asking around to see if anyone wants to tag along, for safety reasons.
A typical snap shackle on a spin halyard failed one beautiful evening. Spinnaker goes into the water. Halyard stuck at top of mast, of course. Not sure if it was the spring pin or the swivel pin that went. The second one was a main halyard shackle that looked a lot like the photo above. A big screw-in pin worked its way out after a week at sea and somehow bent. Main came down, halyard lost at top of mast. At night of course.
Knots are slower when making sail changes, but if your sail is going to be up for a week, I'll take slow.
Also, I've seen shackles get destroyed by the stainless rings on spinnaker heads, if they still make them that way. Apparently the shackle stainless was not as hard as the ring stainless.