I have 3/8" line installed on my Catalina 22. CatalinaDirect is suggesting 1/4" for both my halyards. Will I regret stepping down to 1/4"; will I notice a difference?
1/4" Halyard comfortable?
- Thread starter gtg
- Start date
If you're asking, I'm assuming a casual sailor who sets the sails and doesn't touch the halyards until ready to come in. If that's the case and you use a winch to hoist them, 1/4 will be OK. However might be a bit tough on the hands if you don't use a winch.
Yes, you'll notice a huge difference. Could rven cut your hands. Party of line size is called "hand" which means how comfortable it is to, uhm, handle it, regardless of the material it's made of. Once it gets reallly thin, especially if it needs some oomph to pull on it, it gets tedious using thin line. If you can, got into a store with line, even a hardware store will do, and feel the different sizes, pull hard on them, too. Then decide if that's what YOU want to do. Good luck. I've found, regardless of boat size, and I've had a C22, C25 and our C34, that 3/8" is as small as I'd want to use, anywhere (except for maybe a spinnaker sheet for light air).
For cruising or day sailing get 5/16 Samson Trophy Braid... it has spun fiber cover that makes it very comfortable in the hand and grippy on the winch drum. If you're more racing oriented, plan to wear gloves all the time, and have the correct size cleats... go with a 1/4" performance line such as Samson MLX3. I'll agree with everyone else that you won't like 1/4" basic polyester line for casual sailing. It's less expensive and it'll fly through the blocks... but it just doesn't feel as comfortable in your hands...... unless as I mentioned... you are into racing and want to save weight.
I find 5/16" is the smallest size line I'm comfortable with handling with any kind of a load and no gloves. I could get by with 1/4" if the load isn't too great. So my vote is you step down to 5/16".
Yes, 1/16" of an inch makes a big difference.
Yes, 1/16" of an inch makes a big difference.
In that case you may want to go with single braid dyneema for the wire section, and 3/8 for the part you handle.