Question for those who splice their own halyards etc.

[Jackdaw]

I have been practicing my halyard hitch and it makes a small, clean looking knot. I will not be splicing my halyards now....only lines connected to a becket. At this point I trust my knot tying over my splicing anyway

Yes. And two other reasons:

The added thickness of the bury portion of a halyard splice can be hard on the shive it runs through.

On high tech lines with dyneema or vectran cores you need a core to core splice. More involved and often leaves the eye just core (no cover) that is exposed to UV.

 

[SailormanDan]

For lines attached to beckets: is a halyard hitch a no-no, or is a splice preferred because it is cleaner and/or won't hang up on something?

 

[kito]

For lines attached to beckets: is a halyard hitch a no-no, or is a splice preferred because it is cleaner and/or won't hang up on something?

I guess it depends on the size of line and sheave in the block. I am using 7/16 for my vang and the small sheave on my fiddle block is only about 1-1/2" diameter. I tried both the halyard and bowline on the becket and it looks like there could be some chafing. A splice will give me the clearance I would need. 7/16 is probably overkill but went with it just for comfort in my hands.

 

[SailormanDan]

Thanks, Kito, I understand about having bigger lines for bigger hands.

 

[Dan_Y]

For lines attached to beckets: is a halyard hitch a no-no, or is a splice preferred because it is cleaner and/or won't hang up on something?

Great question... was wondering same thing. The vang blocks on my Selden rod kicker has the a nonremovable becket and a new line must have the eye spliced around the becket. I might change the block with becket out (has cam cleat on it) so I can run the van to a rope clutch in the cockpit. was wondering if the eye could be connected to the becket with a soft loop and shackle until I upgrade.

 

[Dan_Y]

Yes. And two other reasons:

The added thickness of the bury portion of a halyard splice can be hard on the shive it runs through.

YES..and my harken traveler car really dislikes the fact that the end of the traveler line is fastened to the traveler stop with an eye that has the core buried about 6 -7" up the line. When the car gets near the stop it's very unhappy and sometimes hard to get to the stop or away from the stop because the buried portion gets very tight going thru the shave in the car. Was thinking the halyard hitch might buy me 3-4" there.

 

[kito]

I've found this to be the best video for splicing double braid. Every winter I play around with splicing....and I completely forget how to do it by spring.

Hey weinie, thanks again for posting this video. I tried the Samson directions that came with my splicing kit and failed miserably. I nailed it first time after following this video.

 

[thinwater]

Like DA said. Splices are bulky too, in a different way. They often increase the minimum stack height on a tackle and won't fit through blocks. Unless you need it for strength (you don't in any of those applications) you are doing this just for looks, not function. Just so you know.

 

[alexco38]

2 Problems with splicing halyard:
(1) You can't pull it up too high as the thicken part will jam in the sheave. It's a bear to undo it.
(2) You can't reverse the line as they grow older.

It's better to use halyard hitch.

 

[kito]

2 Problems with splicing halyard:
(1) You can't pull it up too high as the thicken part will jam in the sheave. It's a bear to undo it.
(2) You can't reverse the line as they grow older.

It's better to use halyard hitch.

I am using halyard hitches on all my halyards now instead of splices. Only places I am splicing is on my vang and mainsheet beckets.

 

[Brian S]

For lines attached to beckets: is a halyard hitch a no-no, or is a splice preferred because it is cleaner and/or won't hang up on something?

I use a buntline hitch on lines tied to beckets. http://www.animatedknots.com/buntline/ It's a jamming knot, much easier to tie than to do a splice, and very low profile. I think splices on beckets looks nice, but the buntline hitch doesn't look much worse.

 

[Brian S]

We use this knot exclusively on all our halyards.

Jackdaw, for your halyard hitches, I expect you are using high tech Dyneema or Vectran cored halyard. Do you strip back the cover, or just tie the hitch including the cover? Actually, I would expect you have the cover stripped back to the fully hoisted position, with the goal of reducing weight aloft. Are you tying the halyard hitch to the sail's head, or to a halyard shackle? (Again, to reduce weight aloft.) Finally, I know that many boats, especially smaller ones, use a button or dogbone at the halyard end, to feed and loop over the headboard; again, rather than the weight of a halyard shackle. But sometimes bigger boats, like this guy with a Lapworth 36: http://l-36.com/halyard_toggle.php

 

[Jackdaw]

Jackdaw, for your halyard hitches, I expect you are using high tech Dyneema or Vectran cored halyard. Do you strip back the cover, or just tie the hitch including the cover? Actually, I would expect you have the cover stripped back to the fully hoisted position, with the goal of reducing weight aloft. Are you tying the halyard hitch to the sail's head, or to a halyard shackle? (Again, to reduce weight aloft.) Finally, I know that many boats, especially smaller ones, use a button or dogbone at the halyard end, to feed and loop over the headboard; again, rather than the weight of a halyard shackle. But sometimes bigger boats, like this guy with a Lapworth 36: http://l-36.com/halyard_toggle.php

On our First 260 the halyards are Vectran cored. On the 36.7, Dyneema. We tie the knots with the cover in place.

We can't strip on the 36.7 due to class rules. We could of course on the 260 but don't. Mostly because we use the hali back to the boom end as a topping lift, which would expose core to UV.

Same with shackles on the 36.7, gotta have 'em. On the 260 we could go without; the trick is to get a good untie-able knot in the tight space between the sheave exit and the black sail band. So we put up with the weight of the shackle. And the weight of tape holding the stupid thing 100% closed!

 

[weinie]

Definitely use a shackle. You will never untie that knot once it has been under tension! I use it on a dyneema halyard. It doesn't slip.

 

[Jackdaw]

Definitely use a shackle. You will never untie that knot once it has been under tension! I use it on a dyneema halyard. It doesn't slip.

Well not THAT KNOT. But lots of race boats do tie halyards to sails. The Pogo ties its asyms on with bowlines, and some small boats use this button system Brian talked about for their mainsails.