Page 273 - Brion Toss - The Complete Rigger’s Apprentice

of that halyard; the splice should be just above the
winch when the sail is fully hoisted.
If you’re replacing a properly fitted old halyard,
just send it down and reproduce the wire and rope
lengths in the new halyard. If the old one doesn’t fit
right, hoist the sail, measure how far off it is, then
send it down and adjust accordingly when you take
measurements off it for the new one. If the mast is
new, measure while it’s out of the boat. For a head-
sail halyard on a new mast, be sure to “loft” the
angle and length of the stay or you’ll come up short.
You’ll also get a misfit if you cleverly reeve a rope to
measure with, marking it “for an exact fit”; when
you later stretch it out as a pattern for the new hal-
yard, you’ll almost certainly stretch it more or less
than you did on the mast. Use a tape measure.
Figure 6-70A. Having the Tail Splice too far above
Variations and Aberrations the winch defeats the purpose of using wire.
There are many styles of Tail Splice, as one might
expect with such an arcane and complex knot. If
the style you use or buy is different from the one
described here, just be sure that it, like this one,
is thoroughly tested and proven. Avoid those with
abrupt shoulders, few tucks, or uneven appearance.
You’ll occasionally see a halyard proportioned
so that the splice is between cleat and winch when
the sail is hoisted (Figure 6-70D). The rationale here
is that the splice is the weak link and only the wire
should take a full strain. A variation on this involves
inserting the wire far enough into the rope at the
beginning of the splice that a wire-and-rope “sand-
wich” will be wrapped around the winch when the
sail is fully hoisted (Figure 6-70B). Both of these
techniques subject the wire to unnecessary abuse by
wrapping it around a winch designed for rope, and
the sandwich version, in addition, causes the wire to Figure 6-70B. A rope-and-wire “sandwich” around
chafe the rope away from the inside out. the winch results in crushed wire and chafed-through
But with either of these techniques the worst rope, shortening halyard life
moment surely comes when you go to put a reef or
two in the sail. The splice that you didn’t trust in
light air is now exposed, along with the deformed a wire halyard’s low weight, windage, elasticity, and
and weakened rope and wire on either side of it, cost with a rope halyard’s speed and ease of han-
to conditions that can make you uneasy about the dling. Properly made in the right size materials, it’s
stoutest gear. The Tail Splice allows us to combine a strong link, not a weak one.

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