Mast Halyards - internal / external

[barnakiel]

Re mast steps vs. halyards:

We have mast steps and internal halyards. No issues.

We run a fine line along the outer edges of the steps and so halyards do not get hooked on them. After some time I modified the set up to the exact opposite end - so that now I can lock the unused halyards (e.g. the spinnaker's) around them!

(Quality mast steps e.g. Selden's have a nice little grove in them exactly for that use ...)

AND our halyards exit at the base and we have them then led to the cockpit - again: no issues if we have to go forward for any halyard action - I just open the clutch in the cockpit and go foraward and work with the halyard as if it were operated from the mast base. No issues.

So I am contradicting someone else but not for contradicting sake, just on our boat we have the steps, the internal halyards and led to the cockpit and none of the concerns discussed above.

Cheers,
b.

[Cheechako]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

I find this a peculiar attitude! Serious cruisers mostly like to have lots of halyards rove all the time, say two jib, two main, two spinnaker, a staysail and a spinnaker topping lift (as we had on our previous boat). This makes things crowded enough with them all being internal, but if the falls had all been external, what a mess and what a big windage addition there would have been.

I think of myself as being a "serious cruiser" and I've not noticed all that much problem with internal halyards, so I'm not sure what the naysayers are on about. With internals, half of the cordage lives inside the mast and escapes UV degradation. This means that one can, if desired, end-for-end them and have extra lifetime utilizing like-new line for the loaded portion.

All in all, I think that anyone with an alloy tube mast will find life better with internal halyards, but that is just my experience and opinion. YMMV.

Jim

These are excellent real world points. I've had external on smaller boats and internal on larger. It's a real mess with a good number of halyards external for sure.... and how do you keep 5 halyards from slaping the mast... with a lot of screwing around! Both systems are very simple. If you break or pull a halyard allt he way out... you still have to go up and try to feed a halyard thru the top sheave. Yeah.. all external in that case is a bit easier usually.... but I think the benefits of internal outweigh the odds of breakage.

[barnakiel]

Those of us who snap their halyards (well, probably bad English) - what's wrong with us?

In ten years of sailing (close to 40k miles) we did not lose a single one. Just check your rigging and you will see the damage and replace or correct in due time.

I cannot see why anybody with a mast that lends itself to internal halyards would opt for external ones. Just think about it - when you lose an internal halyard, you can always hang an external way anyways!

I must be blind too for I cannot see world cruisers converting to nor preferring external halyards. Most people I know sail with whatever system came with the boat and here (EU) this is like 99% internal halyards.

b.