Hi, experts! It's time to replace my main halyard on my LF38. The original is wire-to-rope, and I plan to replace with the same (3/16 7X19 wire, 7/16 doublebraid). I have noted that the halyard sheave at the masthead is quite small and narrow - for wire only - meaning the halyard could jam if the rope part (or likely, the transition from wire to rope section) had to pass over it. Therefore it seems the only way to safely do this (no desire to climb the mast) would be to (1) raise the halyard up (with a line on the sail head shackle) to the point where wire is exiting the mast at the bottom, (2) cut the old wire here or near where it joins the old rope, 3) attach the shackle-end of the new wire halyard to the tail-end (cut) of the old wire, and (4) carefully pull downward on the old wire outside to bring the new wire up inside the mast and over the sheave and down where I will either swage a thimble for the shackle or use a swageless fitting. First, I don't see any other logical way to do this, and it should be pretty simple as long as the two wires are well connected in a smooth slim way so that nothing gets hung up inside the mast or on the sheave. Second, I'm thinking it's better to temporarily join the two wire ends than to attach a messenger first to remove the old halyard, and then a second messenger attachment to install the new halyard. Either way, a messenger line or the new wire has to be connected to the old wire, so why not do this just once rather than twice with twice the risk of something happening. Let me know if you see any fallacies or problems in my thinking so far. So the question I face is how best to temporarily make a "butt joint" of two wire ends for pulling the new halyard through the mast? I know how to do this with rope, which can be stitched together and then taped, so that the tape itself is taking the full burden, but you can't "stitch" 7X19 wire as easily. (Or maybe one can? Twist it open a bit to sneak a flexible wire or strong thin line through and then twist it back to shape and hope the wire's flexibility and shape haven't been altered, and repeat with the other wire end, then tape?) Could I risk a good tape by itself holding the ends together? (There seems to be no friction at all inside the mast - I'm just concerned with getting the "joint" over the sheave smoothly.) Or maybe tape and then wrap over the tape very tightly with a thin waxed line? Any great ideas on the safest way to do this? Thanks! Tom Lochhaas 1980 LF38 Topanga II Newburyport, MA
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