How much weight can a halyard and boom hold?

[capnorv]

Two days ago I loaded a new engine weighing #670 onto and then down into my boat with two halyards fitted to the boom and a 2*4 on top of the boom to distribute the weight and pressure of the chain and comealong. The only failure during this task was the new ton and 1/2 comealong, which I had to back up with a cable comealong. This was done at approximately 2/3 out the 14' boom.

[OneBoatman]

You can look up tensile strength of your halyards, they can no doubt handle the load. Your sheaves at the masthead should be fine. I'm not following what your doing with your boom but it certainly wouldn't buckle with a 400 lb compressive load. Your topping lift, and gooseneck are likely the weakest areas. I once helped a woman from Australia by drilling out the remnants of the sheared off screws which used to fasten the gooseneck to the mast of her Catalina 42. Extra care was taken to stay just under the minor diameter so the threaded holes in the mast were preserved and fine to re-use. She described the failure as the result of an unintentional jib in high winds with an angry sea on her quarter. I'm guessing she did not have a preventer rigged but she did say it was pretty scary. I've seen many sailors at anchor hang a hammock between their headstay and mast. You can put a rolling hitch around your headstay with the tail of a spare halyard and tie the other end at your bull ring. Use a rag or towel to prevent chafe at the headstay.

[Woodfall]

Well, it sort of depends on the piece of string you are using. Most string has specifications that tell you how much tension will break it, and whatever.



You know, people used to post solutions in this forum, or at least they'd do some research before asking (... ) questions.