Thanks Brian, I am looking to replace both the Halyards and the Sheets. I am a dealer for New England Rope and was looking at the Marine Sta-Set double braid polyester. Does this sound like a reasonable option?
Well, you're a New England Ropes dealer? Why, let's talk swanky ropes, my friend!
Sta-set is a go-to double braid polyester rope. But I don't like it for halyards. It's stretchy, and it's often spec'd oversized just to accommodate stretch. But that just makes for more weight aloft. I'm all for going high tech lines, and skinnier, because the breaking strength is higher for stuff like Dyneema and Vectran.
As a minimum for halyards, I'd use NER VPC, which is a blended Dyneema core with a polyester cover. Not too much more expensive than Sta-set, but less stretch. Since we are sticking with NER selections, I'd move up from there to Endura Braid, which is a full Dyneema core with polyester cover. Dyneema tolerates bending better than a Vectran core, but for a racing boat, I'd use a Vectran core for jib halyard. Either way, VPC or Endura Braid would do well to upgrade halyards on a cruising boat.
For sheets, you could use Sta-set. One of the problems with Sta-set is that it absorbs water and gets heavier. For this reason, it isn't the greatest choice for jib halyards, especially larger genoas, because you don't want any extra weight holding down the genoa in light winds, and spoiling any shape you try to maintain.
My personal favorite for sheets, main and jib, is NER Salsa. It's a Dyneema blended single braid, so relatively easy to splice. One of the complaints about single braids is that they flatten out in cam cleats, but it's been my experience that Salsa stays round. (Similar blended Dyneema single braid FSE Robline Racing Sheet DOES tend to flatten in cam cleats...) But Salsa feels great and soft in the hands, and runs easily through multipart purchases. It's a favorite of Hobie 16 racers, because they have that crazy 8 or 10 part purchase block system for the mainsheet. The biggest problem with Salsa is it's damn ugly, pretty much no matter what color you get. I have the "grey" Salsa for my mainsheet, and it still has yellow, white, and grey strands, but with flecks of red in the yellow strands. I bought some custom 5/16" red, white, and blue for my jib sheets. It's better because there aren't flecks of color in it... but the place I bought it from wouldn't order a 600' spool of 3/8" R,W,B so I could get the main sheet and jib sheets to match.
Full disclosure, I own an 18.5' daysailing cruising boat, but I still bought 1/4" Vectran cored halyards and Salsa for sheets. My spin halyard is a heat treated Marlow pre-stretch, because it has good takedown characteristics... Yeah, sometimes I have more money than brains, and the aspirations of an America's Cup racer.
