Cruising Sailors Forum Archive

2:1 Halyard
In Response To: That's good to hear, Max. ()

My main weighs over 100 pounds, plus the halyard is led aft to the cockpit. Even with ball-bearing cars and blocks, and 2:1 halyard that gives a mechanical advantage, I can only raise it part-way by hand. The halyard gets put on the winch at some point.

You might also want to consider a 2:1 halyard. You install the headboard shackle to a block on the halyard and tie the bitter end of the halyard as close as possible to the masthead sheave (generally it's tied to a clevis pin mounted in some sort of masthead crane that extends a few inches out from the masthead the halyard sheave). A 2:1 halyard also cuts the halyard-induced compression loads on your mast by half, so its less stress on the standing rigging. You can use smaller diameter line too because the loads are roughly half, but it needs to be almost twice as long as a 1:1 halyard.

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