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I recently came accross this sketch for reeving a 6 to 1 purchase between two triple blocks which shows it how do do it very clearly.

As promised I am posting a picture of a problem to look out for whilst inspecting your running rigging.  Here is a shot of a eye splice with is stating to pulling out.  In this case you with notice that the whipping seizing has come away which has allowed the splice to slowly work its way loose.  

Eye splice that is pulling out.

Thanks for the comments, two excellent points!  As you say the if you have have purchases with triples (or greater), right angle reeving them can help prevent the problem. Most of the block manufacturers have diagrams of this in the catalogs. I found the below in the 2009 Harken catalog.

6:1 Purchace

When reeving them it is a bit like doing one of those Chinese puzzles and I still end up having to do it a couple of time to get it right.

The second point on the cover is great one as well but shhhh if no one wears out their lines how are we going to sell any lines.

I got to thinking last night that what my site was short of was a help page offering advice on what to look for while checking your running rigging.  After some consideration, I thought it might be best to create a blog so I could get some feedback on the subject.  I could invite knowledgeable experts in this field to blog on the subject, that way sailors visiting my site/ blog can get not only my advice but multiple opinions.

Breaking a halyard, sheet or line is seldom catastrophic, but it can ruin your day. For the racing fraternity a halyard breaking usually means a DFL for the race and sometimes forces you to have to retire for the day in order to fish in a new halyard.  Typically lines fail when it starts to blow and the last thing you want to be doing shorthanded on a cruising boat is being on the foredeck wrestling with a sail out of the water. Running rigging on a sail boat does not have a long life span and needs to be checked regularly to prevent failure. 

If the halyards are out the mast this is easy to do. Start at one end of the line and run it through your fingers feeling for bumps and irregularities, whilst visually inspecting it. If the halyards are in the mast this is a little less easy to do, but doable. What I do is attach the tail end 0f the halyard to the halyard shackle and pull it up the mast whilst checking what is coming out the exit slot of the mast. What are you looking for and where are you I likely to find it?

1. Starting at the halyard shackle, check its mechanics are in order. In particular check the area around the hinge pin. I have often found cracks here and this where they tend to fail.
2. The splice is next. Check that it is not working its way loose.  Check that the seizing whipping that prevents it doing this is good. Feel down from the shackle for about 18″ to make sure there are no hard spots in the bury of the splice.
3. Also check where the eye splice wraps around the shackle that it is not chafing through the cover into the core.
4. Another area of failure is where the halyard goes over the sheave and exits the mast, when it is in the sail hoisted position or in its stowed position when you are at the dock. You will be looking for chafe, flattening and feel for bumps which what I call hernias. The chafe is usually caused by sharp edges on the mast or sheave. The hernias are usually a sign of core failure from loading.
5. The next areas to check are where the line area held by the clutch/stoppers and where they go around the winch.  Again check these areas in the halyard up and the halyard down positions. Checking for chafing though the cover.  Race boats very often have rope cover damage here caused when crew incorrectly release the stopper under load, without taking up the line on a winch.  You also need to look for melting and chafing on the rope covers, in the winch areas, where the line is constantly been released under load.  The runner tails see the worst damage from this and to a less extent the sheets.
6. UV damage is unavoidable unless you pull the halyards out of the rig when you not sailing, which some racers with stripped covers do.  With double braid lines the cover dry rots and you can often pull out strands of it, particularly the colored flecks.  For racers with stripped covers the threat is more severe. You are looking for fluffing and broken strands.  After a year there are always going be some and it is a difficult to call.   I push open the core and look at the inner strands that have not been exposed to the sun. If these look shiny and healthy I am usually happy, if they are dull and some of the strands are failing I am not.
7. Fiber fatigue is a problem with some of the hi-tech lines cores and very hard to detect when they are covered.  When the covers are stripped the inspection I do checking the inside of the core may give you an indication of problems. I would like to ask the rope manufactures to comment and advice on this.  A lot of boat captains record when they installed and replace them two years later (or whatever period they think necessary).

Well that’s all I can think of for the moment and I am impatient to post this as it is my first blog and I want to see it up there.  I will be looking for photos of these and will blog them when I find them.  If anyone has any please submit them.  If you do find problems with your running rigging and need to replace them, Bosun Yacht Services would like the opportunity to give an estimate.  Please fill out quote request form on our site www.rigbos.com/Quote_request.html and submit it.