Why does everyone replace steel-rope halyards?

[Dave Z.]

My cat27 has a steel/rope main halyard. Works great. Why does everone seem to be replacing them with all rope? Cost?I would think steel would run best over the masthead sheave.Dave ZeryckCat27 "Evergreen"Portland, OR

 

[Gary Jensen]

wire rope replaced

The improvements in srength and the lack of stretch coupled with cost is why wire rope is being replaced with rope.

 

[Randy]

I replaced them, too

I had wire-rope halyards on my Newport 17. When they began to wear (the rope portion) I replaced them with all rope halyards. The all-rope halyard is cheaper, easier to handle, can be turned end for end, will accept knots instead of wire swages, etc. The new, lightweight, low stretch rope is reasonable in cost, and makes all-rope the way to go.

 

[John Eastin]

I will replace mine too.

As we were heading in from a simply wonderful sail Friday evening I found the constant clanging of the wire rope a real downer. Doubt I'll get to replacing them this year but next season when I pull the boat for it's scheduled maintenance it's likely to happen. Anything only lasts so long and I'm guessing mine are running on borrowed time. My guess is that wire rope(s) were another of Catalina's "good ideas" but then so were gate valves on the thru-hulls and chainplates that didn't hold and transom covers that can't accept today's outboard motors without modification....