Ascender and Line Wear

[John Stone]

A while back I posted a question about incorporating a halyard jig in place of halyard winches on my boat. Thanks to all for lots of good input. It seems like a reasonable solution might be to use an ascender on a block and tackle to gain final tension on the halyard. The tackle would be secured to a pad-eye or eyebolt in the deck near the mast. I would hand-over-hand the halyard until I needed mechanical advantage and then attach the ascender and block and tackle for the last part of the hoist.

I looked at some ascenders at a local climbing store. They have some fairly aggressive teeth. What kind of wear and tear will these kind of ascenders cause to your standard double braid dacron line often used for halyards? Thinking about how this would work, it seems the ascender will be used routinely in the same general area on the halyard as it is applied during the last few feet of hoist.

Would routinely using an ascender on double braid cause excessive wear? What about wear on other kinds of line used for halyards, e.g. spectra, etc.

I assume the ascenders could also be used for climbing the halyards as well (with appropriate safety lines). Is there a brand and model that would work best for this kind of application?

If the wear is excessive I think I could still use the same set up with a couple of dedicated lines for prusiks that would be attached to the block and tackle.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts, suggestions, and insights.