|
Replacing Wire-to-Rope Halyards |
|
|
|
|
Written by Staff of the Quadrant Marine Institute
|
 Q:I have a sailboat with a wire-to-rope halyard that is looking kind of loose and worn out. I’m thinking about replacing it but am not sure if I should go with all wire or all rope. What is the best way to handle this?
A: Many sailboats in the 1970s used wire-to-rope halyards, or even all wire, as original equipment. The challenge in those days was to minimize stretch. Wire hardly stretches at all, and the rope “tail” was only to make it possible to handle. All-wire was considered the best, but a dedicated locking winch was required for each halyard. You can’t cleat wire.
With newer sailboats, rope halyards are the norm because the technology of synthetic materials and rope-making techniques has improved greatly since the days of wire/rope halyards. New super low-stretch materials, such as spectra, have been developed just for yacht use and have been tested in the racing circuit.
There are a few things to consider when approaching your problem. First, it may be difficult to find a rigger willing to splice and install a wire-to-rope halyard these days. There’s always the possibility that the splice from the wire to rope will fail under extreme loads. As for all-wire halyards, these are usually installed on vessels that have dedicated locking winches that are only used with wire halyards, thus the cost could be quite prohibitive.
There are a few things to consider when switching over to an all-rope halyard. First, the sheaves at the masthead truck will need to be replaced because they’re wire-sized and the new rope halyard will have a larger diameter. Be sure that the new sheaves are the correct size for your new halyard, or you’ll have premature wear or even jamming.
The two things you don’t want in a halyard are breaking or stretching. When selecting new lines for your halyards, go with line that has the lowest stretch rating combined with a high breaking point.
If your existing halyard runs aft to the cockpit, you may need to replace the turning block at the mast partners to fit new line size as well if the old wire passed through it.
One final word of advice when purchasing new line for your halyard: Get a few extra feet more than your original halyard, as it is always easier to cut off excess line once installed rather than the embarrassment of doing the job twice. And remember the old carpenter’s adage, “measure twice, cut once.”
Q: Spring has arrived and the surface on my hull looks faded and worn. Is there anything I can do to make it look new again? I have tried numerous products, but it always seems to fade by the end of the season.
A: This is the age-old question that perennially feeds long dockside discussions. Experts abound at yacht club bars, but the answer is really quite simple. Gelcoat is applied to boats during the initial lay up in the mold. The mold is polished to a mirror surface that gives the brand new gelcoat its gloss. Gloss is simply a perfect reflection of light. A glossy surface is absolutely smooth, and any aberration will be easily seen. If the surface can be maintained in its original state, it will remain very glossy.
However, if it isn’t painstakingly maintained from the day it leaves the factory, UV and airborne chemicals will damage the surface over time, creating a microscopic roughness and resulting in a “chalky” appearance.
A myriad of “quick fix” products all claim to restore youthfulness to aging skin. These products flood the rough surface with various waxes or resins, but they are cosmetics and don’t last long. They amount to makeup, and contrary to the advertising for the wealth of cleansers, waxes and other “magic” products on the market, there’s only one method of actually restoring anything like the original polished surface. This involves abrading away the roughness, literally removing a microscopic layer of gelcoat and then polishing it to a high gloss—meaning serious elbow grease, even with the help of a powered polisher.
First, you have to get rid of all the hopeful cosmetics applied over the years. The best method is to use a stripper (not paint stripper). Strippers for gelcoat are available at your local chandlery. They are powerful, so it’s important to follow the directions and handle with care.
After the surface is completely clean, a proper cut polish is the next step. Cut polish is a paste with an extremely fine grit, something like toothpaste. A word of caution is needed here. Be sure to use an industrial electric polisher—you can rent them—and don’t exceed 1,800 rpm, as this can cause the polishing compound to “burn” and create unsightly streaks.
After achieving a new gloss with the cut polish, apply a good quality protective wax or acrylic polish. If you do a good job of this and keep the surface clean, you’ll have the basis for a good annual maintenance regime. The surface should remain glossy, or close, and be restorable with a cleaner-polish once a year.
Unfortunately, this is not the solution in all cases. If, through poor manufactur¬ing technique, the gelcoat is softer than it should be, there may be little that can be done. This may lead to “pin holing” or “alligatoring”—problems that have no easy cure. If the surface has been repeatedly cut-polished over many years, you can eventually polish right through the gelcoat, and the fibreglass substrate will start to show through.
Once a gelcoat is worn so thin that dark patches are showing, you have only one option—paint it.
|
|
|
Home 
