J/30 Class Association Forums J/30 Forum The Boat, Sails and Equipment quick main haylard recomendation

Rhapsody was out yesterday in winds 20 plus for a pleasure sail with our friends down the dock in a J/92s out too... so I guess since two boats were out we were racing.

Rhapsody had better point and boat speed against a boat that owes 46 seconds a mile! We had the halyard up pretty tight, and about 4 minutes after asking for more Cunningham, the halyard let go. This happened right at the sheaves in the mast crane, just above the shackle.

The halyard was 3/8" VPC with a stripped cover that I got from Layline in August 2008. I decided this time to go with 10MM (3/8") Endura Braid, and am not stripping the cover. I think the wear benefit isn't worth the reduction in weight aloft.

Went up the mast 3 times today on a Hunter 34 and swung over to Rhapsody with a bicycle chain and fishing line to drop a new messenger line. I bought 103 ft of Green Endura Braid since that is all the local West Marine had on a spool large enough to get the length needed. At least they matched the online price I found of $2 per foot. I did an eye splice and used the Wichard shackle from the old halyard.

Breaking strength Comparison for 3/8" line:
VPC - 6,500
Endura Braid - 11,000

Elongation:
VPC - up to 0.8%
Endura Braid - up to 0.3%

Weight per 100 feet:
VPC - 3.9 lbs
Endura Braid - 4.5 lbs

Core:
VPC - Vectran
Endura Braid - Dynema