I like Mundo's solution best.

katysails said:
the messenfer line is better
in some respects becasue then you're not passing an increased width of
line through the roller at the top. On some boats, any increase in
width will cause a jam up there and then you'll end up going up the
mast

And as others have mentioned, sometimes if a messenger line is too
skinny, or if the sheave is worn a bit, or if there is any axial play
in the sheave (ie space between the sides of the sheave and the exit
box), the messenger will jam.


anyway...also, if you have internal halyards like ours, the whole
operation goes smotther using a messenger line..we just use that cheap
stuff from WallyWorld...more cord than line, but it's strong enough
not
to break under tension and slides over things ..

Parachute cord is good for this. You can rub it with paraffin (shades
of Tadpole and his tallow!) and it will slide very smoothly over
almost anything.


"Dave" wrote
.......I laid the old and new
lines
end to end and, joined them with duct tape, then seized over the duct
tape .... Worked like a charm.

I've done this too, only without the seizing. Works for pulling
electrical wire too. The big issue/problem here is if the edge of the
duct tape gets caught on something inside and starts to peel back, you
can lose the whole assembly (ask me how I know).

The best solution for running new lines that I know if (and nobody's
mentioned it yet) is to take about a foot of the core out of the ends
of each line. Put the two stripped-out ends together and sew them as
previously described, and you've got a slightly smaller & more limber
joint between old line & new. It will lay flat in the sheave and not
tend to jump. And if you want to put a splice in the end, you've
already made a start!


"Wilbur Hubbard" wrote:
All this talk about line. Real sailors use trouble-free wire.

Nobody who has ever gotten snagged on a wire with broken strand(s)
will ever forget why they call 'em "meat hooks." Wire is heavy & it
corrodes & it cannot be tied in convenient knots.

....Wire lasts almost forever

And it's impossible to tell when hidden corrosion is about to part it.

and it stretches less than fiber halyards for better sail shape and control

Only if you buy cheap-o crap line for your halyards.

.... It has less weight and windage aloft

Not so.


... and can be spliced to a tail of line if you prefer to
handle line.


If you prefer to handle line, why not use line in the first place?

One other fault of wire which ropes will not... long ago I was racing
a 35 footer, which had a wire lift on the spinnaker pole. The pole was
wood (told you this was a long time ago) and due to some inattention
by the foredeck crew, the lift rubbed against the pole under strain
and sawed about 1/3 of the way thru it. The owner was not amused.

Slightly further back than this, big racing boats used wire genoa
sheets and they were a hazard as well as a PITA.

I have also seen wire halyards cut thru lines inside masts, and saw
grooves in the exit boxes of the mast itself. Wire has it's place but
there is much better stuff for running rigging these days.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King