Replace wire halyard with dyeema?

[Pendragon35]

I have an Alberg 35 and 2017's focus is going to be on redoing the running rigging. The main halyard is the old style outside the mast wire to rope tail run to a reel winch. I know the reel winch is a hazard, so please don't bother telling me; for the moment I'm keeping it.

My question is: will that type of winch accept a dyeema line? or do I need to replace the wire with wire?

[donradcliffe]

Yes , Dyneema will work with a replacement winch. How much are your ribs worth--a reel winch broke two of mine.

[Pendragon35]

My question was: can I keep the same winch and replace the wire?

[conachair]

Originally Posted by Pendragon35

My question was: can I keep the same winch and replace the wire?

Good chance of it - what's the winch look like?
Possible hitch would be the steel wire rope behaves better on a pile up drum, it should lay itself across the drum and back again whereas dyneema might tend to flatten out too much for that to happen and you could end up with a pile on just one part of the drum. For a halyard might not be too big a deal to guide it on by hand.

[appick]

I've heard of others doing this and am considering it myself. The most important bit I've been told is changing out the sheave at the top of the mast. The stainless cable chews up the plastic sheave wheel, and then that will in turn chew up your pricey line. I was told they just tied a stopper knot in the end and terminated it where the cable was.

[rognvald]

P,
Why do you need a wire or wire/rope halyard? Why do you want to use Dyemma rather than a standard polyester braid?

[chris in SG]

I made the change from wire to rope on the captive reel winch of my old Cheoy Lee OS40 about 15 years ago, because the wire halyard was too tough on the varnished mast. I don't think I would have bothered to make the change if the mast had been alloy.

As far as I recall, I experimented first with polyester braid of different diameters, just to find the largest diameter that would still fit inside the captive reel. I used that diameter to then select the most economical spec with sufficient strength and low stretch. I stripped off the outer braid to fit the inner core into the reel hub. At the same time, I replaced the two massive bronze masthead sheaves (about 6" diam.) with nylon, mainly to save weight but also to provide a better shaped groove for the rope halyard.

The system worked well, no regrets or later problems at all..

[roverhi]

The PO swapped out the wire halyards, StaSet X for the main and StaSet for the other halyards. They left the dual groove wire/rope aluminum sheaves in place and they've worked fine including a TransPac. Didn't like the stiffness of the StaSet X and it was too stretchy when climbing with a Top Climber so changed it out for 3/8" Dyneema cored line which had virtually zero stretch. Got a deal on a length of 7/16" exotic cored line so switched the main to that and moved the 3/8" line to the jib halyard. With roller furling don't really need a low stretch line. It did give me an ultra low stretch line on the fore and aft side of the mast for getting to the top with Top Climber, however.

You don't need to swap out the mast head sheaves unless the wire has really torn them up and then could probably clean them up with a file and sand paper. Your wire halyard winch should work with equivalent sized exotic single braid line.

[conachair]

Originally Posted by rognvald

P,
Why do you need a wire or wire/rope halyard? Why do you want to use Dyemma rather than a standard polyester braid?

If the sheaves and other parts of the system are sized for steel wire rope then polyester of that diameter won't be any good.

[Mossy Man]

Jim, I replaced my wire halyards with dyneema and it works really well on my original wire rope reel winches. A lot easier and safer to use than wire. You have to be a little careful to lay it across the reel but this is no big deal. The wire tended to have a life of its own anyway. Not that it matters but it looks good too.
Ian

[UNCIVILIZED]

Originally Posted by rognvald

P,
Why do you need a wire or wire/rope halyard? Why do you want to use Dyemma rather than a standard polyester braid?

Wire or wire/rope = less stretch than polyester
Dyneema = less stretch, plus lighter than wire rope
Dyneema = longer lifespan than both
Dyneema = no meat hooks like with wire. They eat hands, & sails.

For the OP, decent pre-loved winches are cheap. Meaning on par with the cost of the halyard. So why not?

[Jim Cate]

For the OP, decent pre-loved winches are cheap. Meaning on par with the cost of the halyard. So why not?

Well, I think he could simply replace the wire with bare dyneema on the spool winch, whereas it seems ill advised to use such on an open barrel winch (slippage) and it surely wouldn't work in a self tailer.

I hated spool winches in the old days, but can understand the appeal of simply replacing the wire and not spending more money.

Jim

[UNCIVILIZED]

It seems that there's another similar thread in play on this. http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...line-5373.html

[chris in SG]

Originally Posted by Pendragon35

My question was: can I keep the same winch and replace the wire?

Seems worth repeating my advice - whether you choose dyneema or something cheaper, you first need to experiment with line of different diameters and same length as hoist height, to see what diameter the reel will accommodate. I seem to recall I used 5mm double braid and I'm guessing the old wire was about 3mm. Obviously the rope will be larger diameter than the wire but I think most reel winches have plenty spare capacity in the drum.

[Mossy Man]

Absolutely right and I had to play around with the line length to get it right. Another 300mm of line and it would have overfilled the winch barrel.