"Shaun Van Poecke" writes:

Hi Martin,
I have come across your website before, and i must say - a very handsome
boat!

I am blushing.

This cat is definitely in the cheaper end of the spectrum but can still be
fun for me to sail. It is never raced. It is sailed on a lake in the
desert in the middle of australia which is quite close to my house, but

I am just back from a quick business trip to another desert: the
Phoenix-Tempe-Scottsdale valley of Arizona. Guess what? It was overcast
day one and rained all of day two...

Both halyards are wire rope which is then tied to spectra cord.

Now I am confused. I used to have wire+tail halyards and had no
stretch problems with those. I think the jib halyard wire was 4 mm
and the tail an 8 mm polyester double braid (pre-stretched).

halyard is not so critical since it has a mast top lock and then downhall
tension is taken up with a cunningham with plenty of purchase, but the jib
has only about 4feet of 5mm spectra with no purchase at all.

So, what you are saying here is you don't have any other way---like
down haul or so---to tension the jib luff other than what you can
do by hand on the halyard and the cleat? Then I guess your problem is
not halyard stretch but lack of tension on the jib luff.

the vang type block with some new rope (all lines are being replaced anyway)
and will let you know how it goes. I have ordered enough rope to replace
the entire halyard with rope, and was thinking to get rid of the wire rope
section of the halyard... does this sound like a good idea?

Maybe not, see above.

Cheers,

--
Martin Schöön "Problems worthy of attack
show their worth by hitting back."
Piet Hein