As you all know now we have an agreement with mike quill to answer rigging questions. He is being paid a substantial annual honorarium by the INA to provide expert rigging advice. If you have rigging questions go to an expert source.
I am seeing a lot of anecdotal advice about halyards on a Nonsuch 36. I have a 36 which I have owned for 20 years. In April 2022 the harken 48 which came with the boat when I bought it broke and harken no longer Carrys parts. I searched everywhere and could not find a drum. It took four months to get a new harken 46 electric winch. It is mounted on the coaming so I use it for the halyard and the sheet. All the lines on the boat were 12mm. The rigger put in an 8mm halyard. It just spun out of the self tailer and off the winch when raising the halyard. I talked to mike and harken and both said 8mm was too small. The rigger finally after 6 months agreed to change the halyard. He put on a 10 mm halyard. The third time I used it the halyard spun off the winch and out of the jaws of the winch and the self tailer and I grabbed the halyard and it pulled my hand into the winch. The other two times I tailed the halyard to some extent I think. My hand was severely injured. I had more conversations with mike and we agreed a 12mm halyard would be appropriate. I bought the line and a new rigger is installing it
The harken 46 jaws take lines from 8 mm to 14mm. To grip the halyard properly the 12 mm grips firmly. Prior to installing the new winch I never had a problem with the halyard or any other line coming out of the self tailer or spinning off the winch.
Phil LeVine. MeSays Nonsuch 36 San Pedro, CA
Glad to hear you got a new rigger, Phil.
Joe Valinoti
S/V iL Gatto NS30U #221
Sea Harbour YC
Oriental, NC USA
Good reminders, Phil!
The INA is paying for Mike Quill’s advice, while advice on the Discussion group (including my own) is free. The old adage about things being worth what you pay for them is definitely worth remembering in evaluating different sources of information.
I really hope that people who take advantage of the INA arrangement with Mike will share the answers that they get with the Discussion group just as you’ve done here.
He’s the best source of mast and rigging information, and the more places we can get those answers out to, the better chance people will find them when needed.
BTW, with 20-20 hindsight, there may be a point worth considering buried in the solution you adopted – picking a line size right in the middle of your self-tailer jaw’s range might be a very good idea in general.
Good engineering practice always says that if there’s a range, pick things that hit in the middle rather than at the limits.
A line under tension or compression often becomes narrower than its official diameter. In theory that would affect the wraps around the drum and I believe that’s supposed to be relieved before the line feeds into the jaws. However, I can imagine there are ways that could go wrong. And, in that case, a line that was supposed to be just big enough to work might in practice turn out to be too small.
– Bob
Me Gusta
Nonsuch e26U #233
The guy at the sailing store told me that the factory gauges line diameters at some specific tension. Which is why all of the untensioned 12mm lines on the rack look like different diameters. I don’t know how much tension they use.