Back to the original post ... Vee Jay has replaced wire halyards with wire ones for 25 years ... only because I never got around to changing the sheaves which have a nice wire groove cut into them by now. And those halyards are easy to order out of Newport.
Next time the mast is down I will go to all rope and new sheaves ... I have never had a wire/rope coupling fail ... but after a couple of years have to knock off thorns at the shackle end ... but that is easy to inspect.
