Halyards tails and wire loops

The usual style of mainsail halyard for a Solo seems to be a hook rack and wire loop. You pull up the sail to the top and when you get there a long wire loop appears through a pulley in the bottom of the mast and you hook the wire loop on the rack. It can be a bit fiddly, but once it is up it works well because the wire doesn't stretch.

But there is a problem.

To pull the end of the wire loop down the mast and through the pulley at the bottom you need a bit of string around the wire loop - the "halyard tail". Over time the tail gets worn and damaged by the wire until it snaps, at which point your halyard wire disappears up the inside of the mast and you have some work to do re-threading your halyard.

I tried fitting a thimble to protect the rope, but nothing I tried would fit through the very narrow gap in the pulley at the bottom of the mast. I also tried winding tape around the rope where it rubs against the wire, but that gets ripped by the wire very quickly.

The only solution is to re-splice the tail every month or so in order to move the point of contact between the wire and the tail. This is fine - if you remember to do it.

But I think there is an answer. And it came from a Laser sailor, which just goes to show you shouldn't ignore everything a Laser sailor says (the Laser sailor is also my wife, so I have to tread carefully here). She said - "well why don't you add another rope loop and move it around a bit each time". Of course I dismissed this at first, but the idea slowly grew on me. In the end I thought I should at least try it before ignoring it.

So I cut a bit of halyard tail off one end and spliced it around the wire loop. Then I spliced the halyard tail through the new loop - it looks like this:

This goes through the pulley in the mast fine and you can move the loop slightly each time to change the place the wire is pulling on. Fingers crossed it will make the halyard tail last much longer. 🤞⛵