Chafe, the enemy of all sailors

PASSEPARTOUT
Christopher & Nirit Slaney
Mon 9 May 2011 15:00
Bermuda at anchor.
 
Acting on a piece of good advice from Jean-Michel Russo, a French mast and rigging expert who checked Passepartout before we crossed the Atlantic, this morning we removed our genoa halyard to shorten it by a few inches. The idea being that after doing so, a fresh section of the halyard will now be in contact with the sheave and thereby reduce the chance of the line wearing through. The place which had been in contact with the sheave looked a bit thinner but otherwise fine, the real problem was further along. The halyard was about one-third chafed through in two spots which seem to correspond to the distance between the mast spreaders.  Something out of sight inside the mast had rubbed against the halyard for the last 3,000 miles. We have now threaded a new halyard and added the old one to our ever growing store of old rope. The consequences of what could happen if the halyard failed in high winds midway between here and Newport are two awful to contemplate.
8mm halyard, badly chafed in two places.
A low is passing to the north of Bermuda during the course of the next two or three days. So far it has brought a welcome shower and washed the deck and rigging from all the encrusted salt. Departure for the US looks likely only after Friday.