Foresail halyard failure

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Paul F

Paul F

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Jun 3, 2004
827
Hunter 1980 - 33 Bradenton
Last weekend the foresail halyard failed when it tore on the U-shaped mast appendage. I have drawn a rough picture of the rigging to better explain the failure. It is easy to see how the halyard could wear and break. There is a timely artical in this months Sail mag. on how to rerig the halyard so I am going to give it a try this weekend. The question is for those that have similar rigs. It looks like a pulley-block attached to the U-appendage would make a better bend than having the halyard run through the U. Has anyone done this and is it a good idea? Second, is it required to run through the U-appendage at all? Just raise the jib with the halyard from the masthead. Comments appreciated.
 
C

Clark

It depends on whether you have a furler or not . .

Most furlers require a certain lead angle for the jib halyard to prevent halyard wrap. If you do have a furler, then you do need something to produce a 10-15 degree lead angle to the top of the furler but most I've seen had a better fitting than just a loop; usually a lead block attached to the mast. If you do not have a furler, I'm not sure I see the need to go thru that loop.
 
Alan

Alan

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Jun 2, 2004
4,174
Hunter 35.5 LI, NY
Agreed

If you are replacing your halyard this would be an excellent time to go with spectra. Spectra halyards can be downsized because they are so much stronger than double braid. An added benefit is that they are also much more chafe resistant than almost anything else. The link shows the block that will do the job for you keeping the halyard angle correct.
 
J

jimg

Halyard

Clark is correct. That is a halyard restrainer. Assuming you have a roller furling setup, if you don't run the halyard through that device you will will get a severe case of halyard wrap. The halyard will wrap around the headstay on the way up, making it nearly impossible to raise the sail. Some halyard restrainers (Harken) have a block built in, some others (Schaefer) don't. Chafe is the problem, and the small surface area of what you have pictured, which is probably a boom bail, is the culprit. It will undoubtedly work for a while, though.
 
R

Rich L

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Mar 9, 2004
138
Hunter 26 Kentucky
I had this problem

I developed a severe case of halyard wrap when I changed the length of my forestay (it was too loose when I bought it). I installed a Harkin halyard restrainer (around $50 - yikes) which is just a small block, about 5-6" below the halyard exit on the mast. Works perfect every time. Installs with 4 screws - so you need to tap holes in the mast and use thread lock.
 
A

Alchemist

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Mar 31, 2004
244
Catalina 380 T Holland
In your picture, you don't have a RF Genoa

If that's true, DON'T USE THE HALYARD RESTRAINER! The only purpose of this piece of hardware is to provide the correct lead angle between the halyard and the top whiz-bang of the roller furler. Using this piece of equipment for any other purpose is counterproductive as it adds friction to the hoist, requires more force to get the halyard properly tensioned (since the angle between the halyard and the luff is no ;onger f degrees, more force must be applied to the halyard to result in the same tension along the uff), and (as you noted) can lead to wear and halyard failure. As the other posters noted, if you have a RF headsail, this piece of equipment MAY be required. However, you could eliminate it (without risking halyard wrap) by adding a pendant either above or below the sail (attached to the head and / or the tack of the sail). Either of these options would allow you to adjust the the location of the whiz-bang to the proper location on the headstay extrusion to obtain the proper halyard lead angle. Steve Alchemist
 
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