[Anonymous]

Hi there
I have just taken on a Bavaria 36 1999 . We were surprised to find wire/rope halyards.
Can anyone comment if they have had good or bad experiences with this halyard format?

Much appreciated and any other comments regarding this model.

Richard

[Anonymous]

Hi Richard,

I have had wire/rope mainsail halyards on in-mast Bavarias that I have owned so this is quite normal. My slab reefed Bavarias have had rope only. I’ve not seen the foresail have that arrangement so I assume you mean just the Mainsail? I didn’t really form an opinion either way about them but then I only put the main sail on and off once a year.

I now have a 2001 Bavaria which is also in-mast but it has a rope halyard, presumably the wire one was replaced.

Roger

[Anonymous]

Wire was good mainly on racing vessels (or those looking to keep closer to performance and luff tweaking) due to its low stretch properties and high strength, but as more robust rope technology advanced this has mostly been replaced by the same users with Dyneema or Spectra…. see link

[Anonymous]

We have a Bavaria 34 which we bought new in 2002 and she has wire halyards with rope tails on both mainsail and genoa. They have had plenty of use and are showing no sign of needing replacement. They allow the correct halyard tension to be maintained as the only stretch is in the rope tail. If you do decide to replace with Dynema or similar, make sure that the sheaves in the mast are suitable as they may be narrow and designed to take wire only. I have not looked at mine so cannot comment but on previous boats I have owned, the sheaves for wire would not take rope.
If you use rope with the wrong sheave the rope will be damaged and may jam so you cannot drop the sail.

[Author]

Posts