Halyard lock/fork, how does it work ?

Older nacras had this system where you had a wire halyard. Pressed onto the halyard was a small ball a little larger than a bee-bee. This ball is small enough to pass through the sheaves but large enough to securely engage the fork. Personally I liked that system but it's weakness is that the cable halyard tends to break at the ball because of the repetitive flexing over the sheaves.

Hey Jake ! You're about to become a good sailor !

You postings counter is now at 1997 and you are identified by the forum script as a "Decent sailor"

Once you breach the 2000 you'll become a great sailor !

Let me the first to congratulate you on reaching the last set before becoming a "Hall of fame sailor" (3000 posts I think, I don't know yet as I'm still at 2300 posts)

Wouter

...so, to hook the halyard, you hoist until the main is up and you pull the ball out away from the hook a few inches to the side and then position the ball in front of the hook and just below the "V" in the fork. The weight of the sail pulls the ball against the underside of the fork to keep it in place. To unhook, simply pull the halyard down about an inch or two and pull the ball out and away from the "V" in the fork. Voila! The halyard starts to run, lowering the main.

The rope spliced to the cable with the ball and the fork can still be bought from Murray's, I think.

This was a much easier system to drop, if you had to, on the water and on the beach. The Tornado system with the mast turning to unhook works well on alternate weekends during a neap tide on odd numbered days. ("Is it still hooked? I dunno. Turn the other way. No, wait. Cripes! How about now? I can't see it. The boat's coming around a little. Clink. Clink. Jeez, who invented this thing?! Get a ring that's offset. No, turn it into the wind. Use a smaller knot. Turn it around next time. File the hook. Is it coming down, now?")

By the way, Jake, I had a halyard for about five years in salt water and the halyard never complained. I think I had better balls than yours.

Anyone going to comment on that last... huh... post? I think he is calling you out Jake.

and... hey, I'm still a Novice Poster?

Uhhhhuh. Hmmm...first the post thing.

I thought I was going to catch you there Wouter for a while but alas, I give up. It's kind of sobering to realize how much we post on this website.

And Dean, about the balls thing...well...you sail a plastic boat. (dangit! That's all I could come up with!?)

I have a 1982 Nacra 18sq which had the halyard fork-type lock. Broke THREE halyards before I took the advice of a much better sailor than I and went ahead and replaced it with the hook-and-ring system.

One BIG advantage of hook and ring is that you can drop sail on the water should you need to shorten for conditions...

and if you want to use downhaul (rather than mast rotation) to depower, you about HAVE to have a hook-and-ring system. (Or you break halyards, like I did.)

sea ya
tami

2000 POSTS! Wheeeee!

Daaaamnit! Why am I still just "Decent"!?

But if you could put up with occasionally breaking a halyard, you could much more easily rig a reefing system using the cable halyard.

My 5.2 had the cable halyard and fork arrangement that served me well for a couple of years...until I was setting up for the Sandusky Steeplechase (by myself and lacking transportation other than my bicycle). I was done but had not hoisted the main when Jamie Diamond told me "keep in mind that time will be short tomorrow - you should probably set that sail once" or something like that. Wise words because as soon as my main was 90% hoisted, the halyard broke right at the ball. Of course, by then, everyone was gone and I had to turn the boat over myself, ride the bike to West Marine, rig up a really questionable halyard, and replace it on the boat. We had an awesome 18 mile ride out to Put In Bay the next morning!

Thanks all for the info.
Will check on murray tomorrow if the halyard in their catalog "Old Style Nacra/Prindle/Sol Cat main halyard" for 50 $ is the one with the ball

And of course my concratulation to the decent sailor.

Jake!
Yo' Mama!

(Fisher-Price was the designer of my yellow plastic boat. It's the step up from a rubber ducky.)

not sure if I should take pride or be ashamed that I have that many posts 😛

On my website, I have near 15k

so its not so bad.

But it's quality rather than quantity which counts...

Thank you all again,

received my new halyard from Murrays today, with a little
conical cylindric shaped thing near the head shackle.
Worked awsome !!! Got the main up and was locked in the fork effortlessly. Same way out.

A happy newbie here. Now it's the jibs turn

Due to certian people being offended I pretty sure the the discriptive titles that would change with post count was turned off. So we are all stuck with what we have.

I give my vote to turn it back on.

Have Fun