RichC | May 5, 2020
After our flag halyard failed again this year, I did a little more digging as to why the “cheap” rope deteriorated so fast. My first assumption was that the sun damaged the fibers since it has a worn, powder feel to it? Then after looking for better grade polyester (weather resistant) halyards, decided that this […]
RichC | February 29, 2020
We have had a problem with our Amazon purchased halyard on our flag pole instead of the rapid flag degrading as usual – as can be seen on our WyzeCam security mp4 video (below). This is the second flag halyard we have had fail in the last couple of years; next time I’m going to […]
RichC | June 19, 2016
Unknown to many sailors, the halyard knot is nonetheless an elegant compact knot that is particularly handy to know about if you need to bend a line on to some sort of shackle or clip (a halyard shackle being the eponymous example) on a more-or-less permanent basis, but are too lazy (or ignorant) to be […]
RichC | January 30, 2015
Besides splicing a shackle to a halyard on a sailboat, I’ve used the mighty bowline tied directly to a sail grommet or to a shackle. Here’s a knot I haven’t tried — the Halyard Knot — and considering that it is most likely a permanent knot, perhaps whipping the end to the standing line would […]
RichC | September 3, 2014
One of the reasons, besides age and appearance, that I replaced the halyards on our sailboat this year was due to the stiffness of the double braided line. Here’s me holding up the line demonstrating just how “stiff” this old mainsail halyard was. Question: Is there a way to find out what kind of rope […]
RichC | August 28, 2014
I picked up the repaired sails from South Sails this week and had initial success after stitching in a nylon thimble multiple times (I’m learning) into Encore’s new jib halyard. I still have the main sail halyard to go, but hopefully it will go smoother after the practice? I noticed the old halyards were oversized […]
RichC | August 23, 2014
The convenient way to replace running rigging on sailboats are to purchase lines pre-made for a particular boat at places like SailboatOwners.com. Of course that would be the “easy” way, but it does discourage upgrading shackles and thimbles or whipping and splicing your own lines. Since our Encore is strictly a cruising sailboat, the premium […]