Pulling up new halyards

 The last time I tried to replace a halyard it didn’t go well.  6 years ago or so and I remember it well.  I taped the new halyard to the end of the old one and pulled it up.  The taped section lodged in the sheave exit at the top of the mast.  The tape gave way and both the old and new halyard fell down.   That required a person up the mast to fix.  Tape?  Really?  What was I thinking?!!

This time would be different.  I spliced them together and pull tested vigorously before attempting to raise the new halyard.

Here is one of the splices.  After raising the new halyard successfully I cut off the old one leaving just a few inches of the new yellow halyard.

Both the new and old halyards are double braid, one for 6mm and the other is 8mm.

Step #1 - remove around 8 inches of core from the end of the new and old halyards.

Step #2 - taper the end of the new halyard.

Step #3 - Use a fid to pull the new halyard into the end of the old halyard (the sheaths are empty up to around 8 inches up).   Pull the new halyard up to just before where the core starts inside the old halyard.  At that point poke the fid out through the sheath and pull it through.   

Step #4 - Use some tarred twine to whip both ends of the splice.  This helps to hold the new halyard inside.   I kept the whip section limited to 4 or 5 wraps.  If it gets longer it could hang up inside the mast.  A long section of whipping tends to be stiff.

Step #5 - Pull test the splice and don’t be easy on it.  If it comes loose it is far better to happen now than when it is inside the mast.

That’s all - now pull it up and through.   I was successful 2 for 2.