Dyneema Halyard

Sarastus had a metal main halyard with a helper rope. The halyard wire had a loop, secure it to the halyard rack on the mast. For some reason racing sailors prefer metal halyards over rope ones, but myself I couldn’t get comfortable with securing the halyard to the rack after raising the mainsail. Many cruising sailors replace the metal halyard with a rope, that not only makes raising the sail more comfortable, but also allows reefing the main. Fixed-length metal wire is far from an ideal solution for reefing.

I purchased a 4 mm dyneema halyard, a clamcleat, aluminium blind rivets (4.0×16 mm), a new mainsail with reefing eyes and a rope for reefing lines. Even if the modifications wasn’t without stumbling, the operation was still a relatively straight-forward job overall. Planning and looking for information took far more time.

Next it’s time to test reefing!