How to attach blocks to my yards

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  • 20 Nov 2012 12:35
    Reply # 1141406 on 1140959
    Deleted user
    Easy Go has two yards of 1/4 aluminum. We originally lashed the halyard blocks using 1 inch webbing using a prusik knot. Never slipped over five years and thousands of miles. the webbing finally succumbed  to UV degradation and has been replaced with a piece of the same rope we use for the halyards and a multi wrap knot originally designed for the yards on square riggers. Again this is working out well with a passage through numerous heavy weather events and lazy sailing passages totally over 70 days at sea. It seems to be working well.
  • 20 Nov 2012 05:58
    Reply # 1141311 on 1140959
    Deleted user

    The new yard on Footprints is 100mm alloy tube with a 3mm wall thickness (5 metres in length for a 53 sq metre sail). As much as possible in my new rig I am trying to do away with hardware and instead use lashings, ordinary polyester braid where the loads are not so high but where there are high loads I am using spectra braid which has a dyneema core.

    The halyard attaches to the yard via a 10mm ss bow shackle which is in turn lashed to the yard with 6 metres of 4mm spectra braid making up multiple turns and located by ss saddles on the bottom of the yard. I say saddles plural because I had spread the load by having a v shaped lashing. David Tyler is using a similar system except his is straight dyneema braid (6mm) and he has formed carbon eyes under the yard to locate his span.

    Unfortunatly my alloy yard has devloped a bend in the exact middle where the lashing attached but I think that may have happened in the very first weekend of sailing when we had very strong winds, bendy battens, and the sail too far aft so every thing was loading up very heavily. As a result the top sail panel was not setting properly. When I discovered this I flipped the yard upside down and created a span where the halyard shackle is lashed around the yard using the same 4mm spectra braid, and there is a single 6mm spectra braid span going right to the top of the yard. Since doing this I have sailed in strong winds and the yard has not bent again so I think it is a matter of spreading the loads as much as possible.

    Now that the new sail on 'Footprints' is performing as it should I will take photos of various aspects of the rig and post them on the site. Another thing I have done is to use 50mm webbing for my batten parrels which have very low friction and slide easily on the mast and as a result you can get the parrels quite tight so the sail does not fall away from the mast when it is to leeward of the mast.

    If you look at all the high tech racing yachts these days, whether they be Americas cup yachts or single handed trans ocean yachts you will not see many hard hardware attachments points for sail and rigging hardware. Instead everything is done with lashings. My old timber yard on the old sail had a galvanised steel halyard attachment bracket. It was ugly, heavy and starting to rust. I would not want to go back to that. If I continue to have problems with my new yard bending (only T5 alloy) I will probably make a carbon fibre yard as on Tystie because I want to minimise the amount of weight I have to pull up the mast.

  • 20 Nov 2012 02:34
    Reply # 1141196 on 1140959
    Deleted user
    Thanks for all the thoughts so far. I looked through the pictures I could find and saw that mehitabel  has had a couple different lashings with a thimble and both the halyard block and the YHP block attached to that eye. (I wasn't able to find illuminating pictures of Tystie or Footprints)

    The pictures I saw seemed to include a great number of turns of pretty large rope, which looks like serious overkill. I suspect that they were done to protect the (apparently) wooden yards from a point load. I can't see any reason I would need that with my thick wall aluminum tubes (~1/4 inch / 6mm)

    I'm still thinking about how best to do it, and let me re-state that I really don't want to do any metal work on my yards if i can avoid it.
  • 20 Nov 2012 00:20
    Reply # 1141121 on 1140959
    Deleted user
    The link to Robin's sketch is here.
  • 19 Nov 2012 23:35
    Reply # 1141096 on 1140959
    Deleted user
    A method of attaching blocks to an aluminium yard is the one I have used. To a piece of the same profile as the yard is  welded an aluminium bar with holes and the profile is cut longitudinally and the profile is widened and slipped over the yard and secured with rivets. Thus the deformation from welding is not on the yard itself. see sketch in my gallery and technical forum illustrations .( I don´t know how to attach an image file to this writing).
    Robin
    The overall weight of this yard is in fact smaller(anyway not heavier) because you can use a profile with thinner walls and have the yard stiffened where it is needed.
    Last modified: 20 Nov 2012 07:48 | Deleted user
  • 19 Nov 2012 20:43
    Reply # 1140993 on 1140959
    I think I'm correct in saying that Footprints, mehitabel and Tystie have all eradicated hardware on their yards.  It would be worth looking at their photo albums.  (As the rain has stopped and I should be working, I'm afraid I don't have time to check them for you.)
  • 19 Nov 2012 19:53
    Message # 1140959
    Deleted user
    The good news is that I'm getting ready to haul a sail up and see how things work (finally!) The bad news is that I'm not sure what the best way to attach things to my yards would be.

    I've got heavy (~1/4 inch wall) aluminum pipes for my yards. They have a few patched screw holes, but no existing hardware to shackle a block onto.

    My halyards are pretty easy, 3:1 so just a single block with a becket. I've decided to ignore the becket and just tie the halyard around the spar near the block.

    For right now I looped a climbing sling (tested to 27kN) around and put the block's shackle through that...and then tied some small stuff around all that to make it less likely to slip up toward the peak. It is kinda ugly and I won't sail this way, but it should hold for a test hoist or two at least.

    But I've also got a block to attach for the yard hauling parrel plus the tail of the YHP. My immediate "easy" solutions don't look as good for me here.

    I'm hoping to do this without a machine shop, any welding, and buying as little new stuff as possible. I've got plenty of rope and small stuff, and I also have some rings that came off the spar in its former life as a wishbone boom. They are 1/4 inch diameter stainless making most of a 1 1/4 inch inside diameter ring, and have a bent plate that was (and can be again) screwed to the spar with four #10 self-tapping screws.

    Edit: I've uploaded a photo of my temporary rig here to illustrate.
    Last modified: 19 Nov 2012 20:37 | Deleted user
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