I am getting ready to replace my old wire to rope halyards. I was going to
have some new ones made up. Starting to get a few meathooks around the
whinch drum. I have been rubbing them off (with a nickel) and although there
is still plenty of diameter they need to be replaced. Then I checked on some
of that carbon fiber core line. How does that hold up in the elements.
Mundo

Mundo wrote:
I am getting ready to replace my old wire to rope halyards. I was going to
have some new ones made up. Starting to get a few meathooks around the
whinch drum. I have been rubbing them off (with a nickel) and although there
is still plenty of diameter they need to be replaced. Then I checked on some
of that carbon fiber core line. How does that hold up in the elements.


I dunno about carbon fiber cored. You should certainly consider junking
the wire-rope halyards. There is stuff out there that is stronger,
lighter, and easier on your rig... and *definitely* on your hands. I'm
down on wire-rope ever since I sawed a nice expensive genoa in half with
one years ago. That wouldn't happen with all-rope.

The best resistance to UV and chafe is polypro (Dacron) line but this
isn't all that strong so they put in an inner core of something like
pre-stretched Dacron, kevlar, etc etc. I'm relatively impressed with the
price/performance of New England rope's Spec-Set which is a blend of
Spectra (kevlar, I think) and Dacron; under normal sailing conditions it
is good handling and stretches very little. It's not the cheapest stuff
but it is by far not the most expensive either...


http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs...ingrigging.htm

.... or ...

http://tinyurl.co.uk/yutm

A good place to call is these guys

http://www.layline.com/products.asp?dept=459#cordage

They'll do a wire-rope splice for you ($50), or if you want a tapered
rope-rope (the way I've gone) they will either do it for you ($50) or
send you the stuff (I do my own splices, it's fun and you can rely on
it), or just plain rope.

I haven't done any serious rope shopping in a while, but there's a break
point between low-stretch low-creep lines suitable for halyards (where
you don't want to constantly re-tension them all the time) and other
running rigging. It may be more cost effective to go with 3/8" plain
braided Dacron and not worry about little luff wrinkles. OTOH that stuff
drives me crazy, I paid the extra 25 cents per foot for 5/16" no-stretch
(dyneema, spectron, etc etc).

Hope this helps.

Take a look at a few of the blended core ropes.
If you need something better then Technora is cost effective.
I just did Samson Ultra Tech for new halyards.
Call the guys at Annapolis Performance Sailing.

S/V Express 30 "Ringmaster"
"Trains are a winter sport"