Halyard Upgrade

[LIsailor]

Good point about the swivel block. There is a swivel that will be used and is craned. The entire halyard was external though previously.
I am putting the main halyard on the mast as it is near the reefing at the front of the boom. I am putting the jib halyard there also and will put a double rope clutch. I am looking at the smaller XTS or the larger XAS.
I will go with 3/8 NE Sta set X, Samson XLS extra, VPC or other higher tech line for these halyards. Lower stretch, lower cost at that size and minimal handling time.
The spinnaker halyard will be run back to the cockpit and I think I will use 7/16 NE Sta set or Samson XLS.
Thoughts?

[S/V Alchemy]

I would consider holding off on this until you can get the mast down and look at the sheave box. As has been pointed out, wire halyard can cope with all sorts of deformations and dings in the metal sheaves that might chew up a new all-rope halyard of whatever size.

A smaller diameter line has less surface area to wear, as well and can be expected to chafe quicker in that situation.

[LIsailor]

Mast is down. Sheaves are being replaced.

[roverhi]

If you are going with New England Rope, I'd go with T900. Its a low stretch synthetic core (dyneema??) with a dacron cover so will have virtually no stretch and, hopefully, decent suppleness. StaSet X is an all dacron line with a braided cover and a straight fiber core. It's low stretch claims are largely because their are more fibers in the core because it's not braided. StaSet X is okay for a halyard but it is a very stiff line that is not pleasant to use. In my case, it wanted to go straight instead of around the self tailing jaws of my coach roof mounted main halyard winch which made the winch non self-tailing. Since it's so stiff, it doesn't coil easily or like to be stuffed in the halyard bag. The dynex cored line I replaced the StaSet X with doesn't have these issues and is way way less stretchy. The stretch wasn't a big deal with the sail for the StaSet X but was with my ATN Mast Climber.

Since the spinnaker halyard needs to go up quickly and can suddenly load with tension, using a double braid line of larger diameter has it's merits.

I've used synthetic line halyards on two boats that previously had wire halyards. One boat has done more than 30,000 miles for us and subsequent owners, the other a TransPac without a problem. If the sheaves don't have burrs and are wire/rope grooved, they should be fine. Still not a bad idea to replace the sheaves if it's an older mast.

[Cheechako]

stay with the larger, it's easy to underestimate how much better to handle it is.