Andrei: as stated already such halyard arrangements were more common 20+ years ago. the family cheoy lee 32' had a 50/50 jib halyard and a 100% stainless main halyard. the 'nice' result of the main's halyard was its compact size allowed it to wrap around a drum within the mainsail wench (no long & bulk coil of line on the mast) ... the negative was as the halyards aged they developed 'spurs' that were NASTY on the hands. if your 50/50 halyards show no 'spurs' or rust there is no reason to replace at this time. best put the money towards other urgent items as you refit the boat. dave scobie M15 #288 - SCRED visit Scred's www-site: http://www.freewebs.com/m15-named-scred --- On Tue, 7/1/08, Andrei Caldararu <andreic@math.wisc.edu> wrote: From: Andrei Caldararu <andreic@math.wisc.edu> Subject: M_Boats: Help with M-17 To: "For and about Montgomery Sailboats" <montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> Date: Tuesday, July 1, 2008, 12:36 AM b) The halyards on Hobbit are different from everything I've ever seen before. Namely, half of the halyard - the one attached to the actual sails -- is made of steel cable, of length about equal to that of the mast. The other half, the one coming down along the mast from the top, is usual rope. Is this common? I haven't been very happy with this arrangement today, so unless there is a good reason for this, I would have liked to switch to an all-rope halyard.