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Dick - 22 Sep 2021

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Voila - 22 Sep 2021

In place of a splice you may use a "halyard shackle hitch" 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3f4Ef7Y3SqU

Check out the Selden manual. 
https://support.seldenmast.com/files/1628841349/595-542-E.pdf 
It is excellent. Page 16 for the Selden knot.
This a fantastic manual. Follow the instructions from page 32 on, to tune your mast.
The beauty of using a knot in place of splice is speed and Halyards can be easily removed and end for ended. 

Hi Voila and all,
Please note that more halyards are being made of synthetic/ high modulus materials and that most (or all?) HM lines should not have knots used in them. They knots cause too much rope strength to be lost and are so slippery (core also) that the knot could be compromised.
My best, Dick Stevenson, s/v Alchemy

We choose HM line for low stretch. It is usually covered with a polyester braid to improve abrasion and UV protection. I agree with a splice as being the strongest.  However with my experience with rigging there is sometimes a bigger problem at the other end. The core slips through cover braid at the clutch. I stitch through the cover to core. (Belay to a cleat, we have point loading.) Better quality lines have  very tightly braided cover to counteract this problem. Core dependant lines have many good qualities. Strength, I observe, is of secondary importance.

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Voila - 23 Sep 2021

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Dick - 22 Sep 2021

+x

 

Voila - 22 Sep 2021

In place of a splice you may use a "halyard shackle hitch" 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3f4Ef7Y3SqU

Check out the Selden manual. 
https://support.seldenmast.com/files/1628841349/595-542-E.pdf 
It is excellent. Page 16 for the Selden knot.
This a fantastic manual. Follow the instructions from page 32 on, to tune your mast.
The beauty of using a knot in place of splice is speed and Halyards can be easily removed and end for ended. 

Hi Voila and all,
Please note that more halyards are being made of synthetic/ high modulus materials and that most (or all?) HM lines should not have knots used in them. They knots cause too much rope strength to be lost and are so slippery (core also) that the knot could be compromised.
My best, Dick Stevenson, s/v Alchemy

We choose HM line for low stretch. It is usually covered with a polyester braid to improve abrasion and UV protection. I agree with a splice as being the strongest.  However with my experience with rigging there is sometimes a bigger problem at the other end. The core slips through cover braid at the clutch. I stitch through the cover to core. (Belay to a cleat, we have point loading.) Better quality lines have  very tightly braided cover to counteract this problem. Core dependant lines have many good qualities. Strength, I observe, is of secondary importance.

Hi Voila,
Yes, you are good to point out that HM line comes made from a variety of materials and that they have different characteristics in rope clutch/brakes, knots etc. I believe stitching core to cover is always a good idea, but best when the core is woven and less good when the core is straight laid as I believe some cores to be.
On Alchemy HM lines are used for:
The halyards for my sails that are made from HM materials (HydraNet Radial cloth) (my spinnaker halyard remains Dacron/polyester as I like the give when hit by a gust.
My asym sheets are synthetic for the sole reasons that they are very light-weight and do not soak up water like a sponge and get heavy as Dacron does: they shed water and remain light-weight: very helpful in light air.
Other attributes of HM line are that it is much lighter weight and smaller in size. This can be nice as a 5/8 inch/16mm line mainsheet could be replaced by 7/16 inch/11mm HM line with much less of a bulky heavy bundle to deal with in the cockpit. (I do not recommend HM sheets for headsails: no give or forgiveness in gusts.
My best, Dick Stevenson, s/v Alchemy