Topping Lift - Fiber or Wire

[Pblais]

My preference: Rope rather than wire. Rope that could be used as a back up main halyard if necessary. So, to save weight aloft, I'll gove for a Spectra core / polyester cover, double braid. Main halyard is Vectran core, but I ain't rich enough to justify Vectran for the topper.

Sort of depends on if there is a sheave at the top of the mast. Mine is a fixed wire that has a block on the end of the wire and a sheave on the end of the boom. You won't make a spare halyard out of that. A lot of the wire topping lifts are like that.

[Sailmonkey]

A new spectra lift went on this weekend. Same price as wire, easy to splice thimbles into, light so it blows away from the sail.
Sunday was a drifer, so I did in fact use the lift as intended to take the weight of the boom off the sail and make about 1kt of speed.

[delmarrey]

Originally Posted by Sailmonkey

Sunday was a drifer, so I did in fact use the lift as intended to take the weight of the boom off the sail and make about 1kt of speed.

I sail a loose footed main so a topping lift wouldn't really change the sail shape but the topping lift has a few other functions; 1) as a lift to take some of the load from the spring loaded vang, 2) to store the boom higher up when the sail is flaked, 3) for lifting heavy objects on/off the boat, 4) and as a spare main halyard if ever needed.

[Weyalan]

Originally Posted by delmarrey

I sail a loose footed main so a topping lift wouldn't really change the sail shape

I think that the looseness of the foot is probably not the crux in most cases, more likely the lack of a spring loaded (or pneumatic / hydraulic) vang. If, as is the case on my tub, the vang is only a cascaded downhaul, with no support to hold the boom up, then, especially in light conditions, attaching the topping lift can stop the weight of the boom from dragging the main down and changing its shape.

[JiffyLube]

Why do you think wire has traditionally been used for topping lifts? Was it because in the past lines had not been developed that were small enough and strong enough to hold the boom?

[GMac]

Originally Posted by JiffyLube

Why do you think wire has traditionally been used for topping lifts? Was it because in the past lines had not been developed that were small enough and strong enough to hold the boom?

That's pretty much it. Mind you may Toppers were also spare halyards for which wire was better. Some do use rope but it's usually big and ugly where the newer stuff is so much smaller and nicer to use. Also the cost differences are closing.

[Solitude]

Nice Job! Interesting to go wire free.