halyard advice

[Troy Boone]

Hi everyone,

It's time for new running rigging on our new-to-us sailboat. It's a 2003 Valiant 42. I'm starting with the halyards and have done a lot of research and some narrowing down--now curious to get some real-world perspective from people who have had halyards made of this stuff.

Boat originally had (and as far as I can tell still has worn-out original) Samson XLS for all its halyards. Obviously we don't need the world's most expensive HM racing fibers as it's a heavy cruising boat, but I realize there are a lot stronger and less stretchy materials available now than 19 years ago, and it might be worth considering an upgrade. There's a pretty wide range of price here, and I should say we're not rich (I'm DIYing as much of this as possible) but we have saved up for this job and don't want to be penny wise/pound poor either. Our goal is offshore cruising.

Here's what I've narrowed it down to. Happy to hear opinions of other products you've favored on similarly used boats:

Samson XLS3 (if we were to replace what we now have with the modern equivalent)

Samson WarpSpeed II

New England Ropes VPC

New England Ropes Endura Braid

Yale Cordage Maxibraid Plus.

Thanks!

Troy
S/V Miranda in Galesville MD

[Hudson Force]

I replaced two halyards on my ketch with the Endura Braid. I usually raised all but the last tightening on my main quickly by hand and I appreciated the feel of the Endura. Earlier I had wire from a wire-rope splice to Dacron line with all the significant tension on the wire.
I found no significant stretching with the Endura.

[Benz]

Of the ones you listed, Yale is the best quality.
Never met a Yale rope I didn't like.
Anything with technora or Vectran in the core will have a shorter life span than dyneema-core.

[Gary Mc]

Hi, I have Endura braid halyards but I mostly race. I like Endura braid because it has a better "hand" than Warpspeed.


However I think you would be fine with Sta-set X, It has low stretch and a lot fewer dollars than the other two I have mentioned.

Tried to find the actual stretch for comparison but no luck in a quick search. Go tot he New England web site and that is what they suggest for performance cruising.
Good Luck

[s/v Jedi]

You wrote that you plan to diy so I assume you have fids and can splice or able to learn?

For a genoa/jib on a furler and in-mast furling main you only need half the halyard low stretch. Make that something like Samson Amsteel Blue 6mm or smaller (compare with strength current halyards) and splice it to 10mm polyester double braid.

For a slab reefed main you need the Dyneema for the whole length, but I only have an outer braid for the part that meets the clutch, winch etc.

You find good videos on all the splices on YouTube.

[Jim Cate]

However I think you would be fine with Sta-set X, It has low stretch and a lot fewer dollars than the other two I have mentioned.

In my experience StaSet-X is nasty stuff! Starts out stiff, becomes even stiffer in use. Very hard for amateurs to splice, and finally, I found that it stretched enough in our usage to require frequent re-tensioning. I surely would not recommend it to anyone for a halyard application.

Jim

[MicHughV]

One has to admit, walking into a marine supply store these days, to shop for a halyard replacement or other line on the boat, can be a confusing task.
There are usually to be seen, reel after reel on display of any and every cordage one can think of, hanging on the back wall, with unit prices that spread from the reasonable to the prohibitive.

Sales clerks can offer some limited suggestions, but invariable, it seems their guess or advice is as good as anybody's.

I've been to several marine salvage shops that offer the same bewildering array of cordage.

At the end of the day, much like the OP, 'm a price shopper. A little bit of stretch one way or another is not going to ruin my day or make a notable difference in sail performance.

[SurlySailor]

For main halyard and genoa halyards we used NER T-900, for spinnaker halyards we use endurabraid. We’ve found the T900 has held up really well.

I used Sampson MLX Extensively on my boat but I found it doesn’t hold up as well, has a lot of stretch when compared to a similar spec’d line on paper and bled the coloring from the core when tensioned wet. I’d expect similar problems with XLS there’s a reason it’s like half the price of its compeitors.

I’ve been looking at premium ropes SCup for some new rigging projects on the boat.

Even if you’re not racing, so much performance boat feel and tuning comes from proper halyard tension I wouldn’t cheap out on the line there. Any creep or stretch is going to make it so you’re constantly chasing sail shape. Use cheaper lines for sheets if you want to keep cost down.

[ggray]

Where I've used core dependent lines on Halyards, I've needed to stitch the core and cover together at the rope clutch.

If I didn't, I've had the cover stripped off

[sanibel sailor]

I have StaSetX. All detriments above are true, although stretch has not been an issue for me. I bought a spool of T900 at a giveaway price and will soon be switching to that. Haven't looked into splicing it. I bet it is a real treat.

[Benz]

Originally Posted by sanibel sailor

I have StaSetX. All detriments above are true, although stretch has not been an issue for me. I bought a spool of T900 at a giveaway price and will soon be switching to that. Haven't looked into splicing it. I bet it is a real treat.

It shouldn't be hard to splice, but make sure you make a covered eye with no core exposed--the technora is not super sun-resistant.
If you managed to splice the Sta-SetX, you're a hero, and the T900 will be no difficulty.

[sanibel sailor]

Originally Posted by Benz

If you managed to splice the Sta-SetX, you're a hero, and the T900 will be no difficulty.

(Hanging head in shame)... I hired a rigger to show me how- he did both main and jib halyards while I watched, and I left with no desire to do it myself next time.

[Benz]

Originally Posted by sanibel sailor

(Hanging head in shame)... I hired a rigger to show me how- he did both main and jib halyards while I watched, and I left with no desire to do it myself next time.

Well, be encouraged: I'm a rigger, and I have no desire to splice Sta-setX ever again either.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by ggray

Where I've used core dependent lines on Halyards, I've needed to stitch the core and cover together at the rope clutch.

If I didn't, I've had the cover stripped off

What brand and type line did this happen with?

I stop the cover so that the length that isn’t handled is bare Dyneema. I splice the cover into the core, which acts like a Brummel lock, but I still stitch a bit as well to keep it all in place when not tensioned.