I have recently had to replace my halyards. Is their any way in which I can extend the life of the lines?

Your new halyards will probably be made of low stretch braid material which will help their life span without you having to do anything. The only thing that they may be suseptable to is Sun damage, but if you try covering them with a UV resistant material when not in use, you will be covering all bases. Try products from ‘Sunbrella’ or ‘acrylon.’

Thanks

Hi Sophie, if you turn your halyards end for end every year you will double the life of them.

Wow harry you really are a fountin of knowledge. I have never heard of that befor, but it does follow common sence. Will have to give it a go.

Similarly, if you cut a little off each end from time to time, the max. wear - at blocks etc.- will not fall on the same spot

Have you any ideas how to recover the genoa halyard rope end after it has passed up inside the mast?

We are new to sailing and lost the rope end
stupidly.
Can it be pushed down somehow?

Would be grateful for any advice.

Chris Davies

It is worth going up to the top in a bosun's chair and trying to feed it back down. There's probably a 50/50 chance of success. If you're lucky it won't get snagged on anything else inside the mast, and will come back down so you can fish it out of the exit with a piece of bent wire. However, there's a reasonable probability that it will get snagged and refuse to reach the exit. In which case, after a couple of failed attempts, the only answer is to pull it right out, and thread a mouse (see Cathy's Blog: Mast mouse . Use a long piece of either heavy gauge whipping twine or flag halyard, with a long, thin weight on the end (spare cotter pin is ideal). You then thread this in from above, and hook it out at the bottom, as already described. Once you have got the mouse in the right place, you can use it to pull the halyard back through. Stitch the mouse to the end of the halyard, without an overlap, and then put plastic tape over the join, to make sure that a) it doesn't come apart in the mast and send you back to square one and b) it doesn't stick on any of the sheeves etc. And once you have got the halyard back in the right place, it's a good idea to tie a stopper knot in the end of it to make sure it does not disappear again! Hope that helps! Cathy

CATHY
Many thanks for your prompt advice to my halyard problem. I will certainly try your solutions and hope for the best. Sounds like it could be tricky!

Regards,
Chris.

All it takes is a good head for heights (which I don't have, which is why I end up doing the winding), a bosun's chair, a good winder, and a bit of patience. If you have not used a bosun's chair before, remember to tie the halyard on. Don't use the snap shackle, which could be knocked undone, with disastrous results. And if you have enough helpers (and halyards) tie on a second halyard as well, and tail it separately, for a belt and braces approach.
If you have coachroof jammers and self-tailing winches, keep the jammer on at all times, and the rope in the self tailer, again belt and braces. If you are using a winch on the mast foot, without jammer, make sure your winders are very careful to avoid riding turns, and keep enough turns on the winch to avoid any sudden descent!

Having bought a new boat to me last season i thought i would be cleaver and remove the halyards to be cleaned and inspected.
Of course as i have been sailing for many years i stitched loops on to the old halyards and replaced the rope with light keeper cord.
You can imagine how stupid I felt when I arrived after a stormy night to find that the cords had broken and all the existing halyards now have to be rethreaded.
see you at the top of the mast.
Dennis

Bad luck. Hope it doesn't take you half a day to do each of them!

lots of good advice above. You could also use a 'snake' for getting ropes or wires throught the mast.This is a sprung steel tape with a small loop on the end. It comes in various lengths and is used predominently in the electrical trade for getting cables through lengths of trunking.
I used one to get my reefing lines along my boom to save removing the boom at the gooseneck.It will also go UP the mast as well as down.

When taking a turn around a winch with someone up a mast, also take the end a turn around a cleat to give more resistance and to control lowering.

To save wear on the halyards over the winter I join all the snapshackles together and then tie a length of rope on the end. Heave the shackles up to the top of the mast and make it fast. All the spare halyard which originally was in the mast I coil and place in a non plastic bag under the spray hood.
This protects the halyards that would previously be exposed to the winter weather.
With regard to a lost halyard I found the best way is to use a mouse (made from a lot of fishermans lead shot with a hole in the centre.) Dont forget to drop the mouse down the outside of the mast first and mark the length with insulating tape. When you fiddle the mouse down you then know roughly where the weight should be.
If the mouse comes out the top of the bottom block stick a short piece of whipping twine with insulating tape to the sheave and carefully roll it round.
It seems a daunting job but it does go quite easily (sometimes)
Also if you can get the boat to lean over so that the mouse comes down on the correct side.
Good Luck

When dropping a mouse down a mast, it helps if you set all the other halyards up bar tight, this helps prevent the line twisting around other halyards inside the mast. I have also found it useful to heel the boat 10-15 degrees to one side (set a halyard up to a jetty or dinghy alongside) then the mouse just runs down one side of the inside of the mast and doesn't twist around any other halyards.
Once you have the new halyard set up, it is worth testing to check it isn't twisted inside the mast, slack off completely the other halyards, then gently pull up and down on the new one, if you can feel slight movement in the slack hayards, you may have twisting.