Messenger Line to Halyard Join

[CarinaPDX]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

This is exactly like I do these. The extra whipping on mine is just to create the Dutch red, white and blue

Or the French red, white and blue. Or the Russian. Or dozens of other countries. It seems to be a popular choice.

Greg

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by CarinaPDX

Or the French red, white and blue. Or the Russian. Or dozens of other countries. It seems to be a popular choice.

Greg

Correct, but Dutch is the original. Oldest tricolor ensign still in use and often copied

[CarinaPDX]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

Correct, but Dutch is the original. Oldest tricolor ensign still in use and often copied

And rotated and shuffled... Cool that it is the oldest.

Greg

[mrcarson]

Light Stainless Welding wire (comes in 1/2 and 1 kg rolls. I use for everything on boats.
Butt the two rope ends together. Palm the welding wire through and back. Criss/cross to hold each other, about 3 or 4 inches up both ends.
Overtape the splice and draw through. Another old farts trick is a Spare single/Double block on shackle at masthead. with a kite, drifter halyard Man enuff for YOUR weight, down to bowrail. Mast winch and chair. Up you go.
Suits chair/Kite/Drifter up to mastcap when needed. And when you go over the side for sterngear/Rudder work. ALWAYS have a light line fastened to back end of all tools up to side rail. or your waist band. I run a 3/4 hose with mouthpiece on end from rail to my gob too.
Your time under is then not so restricted. Just the sharks here in Qld.

[RaymondR]

Originally Posted by jt11791

Remove a couple inches of the core on the new line. Insert the end of the messenger line into the empty cover and stitch in place.

Way to go. I do it all the time and it never fails.

I sometimes cut a short section of braid and bind it onto electrical cables to pull them through low clearance holes. The harder you pull the tighter it grips the cable.

[SV_FlyingTigress]

Hi Team, thanks, your suggestions saved the day. I used the tiny messenger line to pull in some 550 cord line that had a bit more strength. To fasten, I cut the core out of the loop and simply folded the empty core back over itself (I don't have any fids to do real splices) and whipped and stitched them with some fishing braided super line. When I was done with the first small line, I repeated the process with the 550 cord, looping the 550 cord through the small line loop and repeated the whipping and stitching. That got the 550 cord pulled through the sheaves to replace the small line that I had less confidence in pulling hard. I cut the small loop off the 550 loop and then attached my 5/16 halyard through the 550 cord loop the same way. I also made a block at the aft end of the cockpit to allow a better angle into the sheaves for the halyard, then pulled it up. When the interlocked cover-only loops reached the sheaves I pull hard enough to get the line joint through the sheaves and got the halyard through and installed. It worked well. Thanks again.

[SV_FlyingTigress]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

Yes, it is called a Flemish eye splice. It uses just the outer cover so that it runs over the sheaves with the messenger line tied to it.

Below a picture of one I did

Yes, that is what I did, my whipping doesn't look nearly as nice as yours though. Need more practice on that.

[ErnestV]

First, use your messenger to pull in a second messenger, so you have a spare in place if something went south. At least that's what I do.
Then, as others suggested, sew them together, in a "chained" style (or something looking like a bucket) so they don't overlap. Secure the bucket with gaffer tape. Should work, and if the bucket breaks you have the spare messenger to start over.

[SV Magnolia]

I've always just sewn the two lines together; End to end. Never had any sort of issue doing that. Works every time for me so far ...

[JBsurfin]

Originally Posted by Stephen_MO

Hi Cruisers. I wonder if you could help me. I have just climbed my mast on my C27 and after great pains got a messenger line dropped to replace my main halyard which broke and went up *into* the mast and is gone. Since my main halyard is what I would use to ascend the mast using the cloth step line and a safety belt, I was forced to route the spinnaker halyard around the mast/stays to the back side. It meant that I couldn't hoist the step belt quite to the top of the mast and made things awkward/sketchy to say the least, but I got a small messenger line dropped over the sheave and down the mast and out the exit hole in the mast at the bottom. Catalina says the halyard line should be 5/16 and I have that, but here is the issue. I need to join the messenger line and the halyard in a way that is strong and where the joint is smaller than 5/16 so that the line passes through the sheave and down the mast. When I have tried to join them with various techniques and even with only one layer of gorilla tape, it is too big to go over the sheave; I am afraid if I pull harder it will come apart and I will screw myself as I *DO NOT* want to go up the mast again in that condition and am now facing having the boat pulled and unstepping the mast and re-stepping and relaunching .

1. Can anyone give me a recommendation on a STRONG, slim and flexible way to join two lines of unequal size?


Thanks in advance.

Stephen
SV Flying Tigress

Just had a similar thing happen. I used a small fresh fishing hook feed through the center of the line and bent the remaining portion back into the line as a anchor. No way it was pulling out and it was small enough to go through all openings and sleeve. Well, it worked for me, was done in about 10 min.

[stormalong]

Originally Posted by ErnestV

First, use your messenger to pull in a second messenger, so you have a spare in place if something went south. At least that's what I do.
Then, as others suggested, sew them together, in a "chained" style (or something looking like a bucket) so they don't overlap. Secure the bucket with gaffer tape. Should work, and if the bucket breaks you have the spare messenger to start over.

Two lines going through one sheeve just won't work.

Good idea if pulling electrical, not good for halyards.

[sailingharry]

One word of warning. If your line between the messenger and the halyard is very thin, for instance whipping twine or dyneema fishing line, it is possible for it to jump between the sheeve and the mast and jam down beside it. If that happens, you have to pull the sheeve pin and the sheeve out of the mast to fix it. Not fun 64 ft in the air -- but I won't tell you how I know that!

[torrmundi]

I like the idea of extracting the core of the line and inserting the messenger, then sewing it. But I just sewed the two together, end-to-end.

[RaymondR]

Originally Posted by torrmundi

I like the idea of extracting the core of the line and inserting the messenger, then sewing it. But I just sewed the two together, end-to-end.

Done properly the method of extracting the core and inserting the messenger has the advantage that the harder one pulls on the connection the harder it is gripped.