I agree. And there's a lot more to "hand" than line size. I swear by New England Ropes Salsa for my main and jib sheets. It may be the ugliest line ever, but it feels great in the hands, runs extremely well through blocks (Hobie 16 racers use it for mainsheet through 10:1 blocks), and it even holds round shape in cam cleats, which is highly unusual for a single braid.
I used NER Regatta Braid, a single braid as my Genoa sheeting for years and it worked very well. Great hand, very flexible, sticks to a winch drum like glue and had plenty of strength. Mine were 7/16”, you could easily go with 3/8”. Think you will find that they are much easier to sheet than a double braid. I changed them out simply because after 8 years it was time, and they were picking up snags. Recommended.
Dave; I changed over to NER VPC halyards a number of years ago to lose the abundant stretch of StaSet. That stretch gets played out across the deck, up the mast, down the mast to a reefed sail and it not good for trim or the sail, it pumps your sail set. On my boat it was a minimum of 6” to 8” stretch, loading and unloading my sail, not good. As you know, the VPC gives you a great low stretch halyard (with Polyester cover) but it also puts maximum loads on your clutches that I assume they never saw before and they have a few years of wear on them. In my second or third year of VPC I found that the main halyard started slipping in the clutch. A spinlock rebuild kit from APS fixed the problem (jaw cam and base plate) and got the job done. Suggest trying that before you give up on your current halyard. This spring I will be applying line coating to the clutching areas to better shape the line being clutched. I think that will help line clutch grip as well.
Absolutely. Recently replaced my genoa furling line and downsized to 5/16” from 3/8”, the difference is amazing. The furling line passes through 5 sheaves on it’s way to the furler and collects a lot of friction, especially if it rubs the block cheeks, even a little. Furling is now an easy no-winch job. This is a line requirement that can easily be met with less expensive polyester double-braid, and you can use the money saved on a modern low stretch aramid core rope like VPC for low-stretch critical lines like your halyard.
@Gunni you had me all excited until I learned there are no rebuild kits for my Lewmar Clutches. They use a different design, a series of SS rings. The line runs through the rings, when the clutch is closed the rings grip the line and allow it to be trimmed in, but not out. A new set of clutches costs more than the new halyard.
That is another possibility under consideration. I do have a line I bought many years ago for another boat I might use for a preventer. I never used that line because I didn't like the way it felt, so I stuck in a box and forgot about it until last fall.
That is preventer material. You set it and leave it pulling forward on the boom while your Mainsheet pulls astern keeping the boom in place and the sail pulling despite the action of the waves on your boat. Since you do not need to make constant adjustments the hand feel is not relevant.
Lewmar makes, or made their rope clutches in two versions, one was light duty and one was heavy duty with a much higher load range. You may be able to simply switch out your halyard clutch.
Thanks for the ideas. I have the older version, circa 1993 with the metal handles. A replacement is $276 from APS, 120 feet of 7/16 VPC is $171 on sale. The math is easy.
