Spare halyard--what's the best line?

[Dan Lehman]

Originally Posted by Stumble

If instead of sizing for diameter you size for breaking strength you actually save money. Since the same strength amsteel would only run about $110. But it would only be 3/16 which may be to small for your jammers, and can be hard to handle.

There is one point to be made here, echoing Brion's long-ago (2001?) SAIL
article warning of such specious calculations : the "strength" of hi-mod lines
is typically given for spliced lines and is significantly less than this when
knotted.

How amenable to using a (pre-made) splice is the intended use as
"a potential emergency halyard, or for hauling heavy items aboard,
or maybe for a trysail halyard at some point"?
Answer & figure by that (among other concerns).

--dl*
====

[allene]

Originally Posted by Dan Lehman

There is one point to be made here, echoing Brion's long-ago (2001?) SAIL
article warning of such specious calculations : the "strength" of hi-mod lines
is typically given for spliced lines and is significantly less than this when
knotted.

How amenable to using a (pre-made) splice is the intended use as
"a potential emergency halyard, or for hauling heavy items aboard,
or maybe for a trysail halyard at some point"?
Answer & figure by that (among other concerns).

--dl*
====

We did some testing on soft shackles that use a diamond knot. The strength loss due to the knot was about 75%. In other words, compared to a splice, you might be talking about a line with only 1/4 of the strength if it is knotted. I am not saying our numbers relate to your situation, just to be careful.

Allen

[Stumble]

Allen,

This is a good point, dyneema has been known to slip under load, with reports of bowlins indicating as much as a 85% loss of strength.

That being said, doesn't everyone splice fittings to halyards? I don't think I have seen a tied off halyard in years.