Halyard lengths and diameters
Rob-- may I say, VERY GOOD IDEA. I am typically worried about having enough length for winch tails and would not have immediately have thought of the ability to reach the water (and then some). This considered, I would spec out at least the secondary jib and main halyards to be over-length. You don't want the primaries to be too long and underfoot all the time. Another way to get people out of the water is with the vang clipped onto the mainsheet bail, but again it should be long enough to be tailed to a winch (and possibly through a snatch block on the rail to get a good lead to it). I requested a quote for a spinnaker halyard from Rigging Only and got a very firm response that I was crazy for asking for 7/16" when 3/8" was adequate for an H-25. This was somewhat funny on both ends of the phone but brought up an issue I was uncomfortable with. I prefer slightly too-large lines all around, not necessarily for strength. Larger-diameter lines are more comfortable to hold, securer to cleat, and can be pressed into service doing jobs they weren't narrowly spec'ed out to do (such as towing or warping). Moreover, thicker lines withstand aging better and longer. I think 3/8" is too light for primary halyards on a 30-ft boat and would insist on 7/16". (The blocks are probably Schaefer 5-series or equivalent and can be used with their intended max line size.) These should be Sampson XLS or equivalent. The Sampson comes out a little better on the strength/weight ratio than Sta-Set X, as well as being softer and easier to manage when new, but thanks to Randy Repass's two companies, NE Ropes and West Marine, it's almost impossible to get Sampson Yacht Braid over the counter any more. Defender's sell it and splice it. That's where I went.
