33.5 Main Halyard Replacement

[John Huff]

I need to replace my Main Halyard with the mast stepped. I have a 1992 33.5 and am looking for any ideas and experiences people have. The Owners Manual shows the halyard to be 108’ of 7/16” low stretch Dacron. Is this the correct length and size?Thanks, John

 

[Steve Dion]

Very easy process.

John:I did this on my '85 H'31 in the last year or so. I called Hunter for the correct sizing. I then ordered the lines from JSI w/shackles. I ordered my lines a little longer incase I wanted to bring the line back to the jib winches.When the new lines arrived, I cut off the old shackels from the line and sewed the bitter ends together (end-to-end) with whipping twine. I then put a couple of wraps of rigging tape over the joint and just pulled it up, over, down and through. There may be a little tug that you will feel when it goes over the sheave but no big deal. Cut off the tape and whipping, clean up and you are ready for another brew.The entire process for three halyards was less then an hour.

 

[Bil Thomas]

Halyard replacement process

When I replaced the halyards I used a slightly different process. I attached a long length of line to the winch end of the halyard leaving the shackle end intact. I then pulled the halyard out from the top of the mast so that the temp line threaded itself up the base of the mast out of the top of the mast then down to the deck. (be carefull that you have a long enough temp line that it doesn't get pulled up into the mast). At this point cut the old halyard free and attached the bitter end of the new halyard to the end exiting the top of the mast and pull the temp line back through from the base of the mast. It adds and extra step but leaves an intact extra backup halyard. On my boat all lines run to the cockpit. when I did this I did the connections in the cockpit and pulled the lines through the blocks and deck organizers as well.