changing some running rigging

[Frank B.]

It is OEM and getting a little stiff and powdering a bit.  21 years in the weather with cleaning and conditioning about every three years.  Need to change the main halyard, main sheet, and jib sheet.  Mostly I have a plan, but a question on the jib sheet.  I bought the boat and it had a single 3/8" double braid attached to the clew with a cow hitch.  It is simple and has been OK mostly but every once in awhile it hangs on a shroud when coming about. Thinking about using two separate lines with eyes attached to a soft shackle. Wonder if that will pass over with less chance of hanging up. Any experience with that?  Also on the halyard I plan to reuse the original head shackle and it is the style that has a fixed capture pin.  Never done a small eye splice on a shackle  and wonder if these arthritic hands can manage that. Comments, encouragement welcome.

[Charles Brennan]

Frank, For my jib sheet on Urchin, I took a foot of double-braid and simply tied an overhand knot in it.
I folded my jib sheet in half and seized the knotted line a few inches back from the loop, to form an eye.
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I sewed it and seized it, and it made for a very simple soft-shackled jib-sheet. 
The "V" of the two jib sheets never snagged on the shrouds, it would move right around them.
While there is that knot in the jib clew, it is well forward, so there is nothing to hang on the side shrouds.
Held up for about 35 years and was still functional, when I sold the boat, last year.

Made a small eye-splice for the SCAMP halyard shackle, for the very first time, this past March.
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Somehow got the core, where the outer wrap should have been and the outer wrap, where the core should be.
Still haven't figured how how I managed to do that, but it seems to be holding up well.
My first two attempts failed for random reasons and on the third attempt, I soaked about two or three feet of the end in fabric softener overnight, because I had read about that helping, somewhere.
Can't say that it helped all that much, except it was much easier on my hands, when it came to the hard milking the line and pulling, right at the end.
The bronze shackle was tearing up the front of my mast paint, so I cut it off and replaced it with a Dyneema soft shackle; that seems to be working much better.

Being Old and Arthritic, doesn't mean you can't do the work; it just means that you might need a little longer, to accomplish it. 

Hope this helps,
Charles Brennan

[Brian S]

For your halyard, I would use a halyard hitch. https://www.animatedknots.com/halyard-hitch-knot My previous halyard I had an eye spliced in, but the problem is the thickness of the bury taper tends to jam up in the sheave box at the masthead. With the halyard hitch, I can get full hoist with the same thickness of line going into the sheave, because there is no taper bury making the line thicker.

As for your jibsheet cowhitch, I've only ever used a cowhitch. There's always something up on the foredeck going to get caught on something. Sometimes it's getting caught on my masthead light wiring harness, sometimes it's full on getting caught on the horn cleat on the mast.

I tried using a soft shackle to a doubled over loop knot for my asym spinnaker which gybes outside the forestay (because I don't have a bowsprit.) On that setup, I've never had it NOT catch over the forestay.

It might be worth a try for the jibsheet to sew and seize a loop in the sheet, and soft shackle it on.

[Riley Smith]

Powdered a bit? Yeah, it's time. You'll love new line. Although it'll probably STILL take more than you want to give. I know this after using previous halyards for things involving heavy loads and tow trucks. And other such activities. I'm glad I don't have a jib sheet.