Flipping your sheets and halyards, or rather end-for-ending, can be a safe and cautious middle ground between replacing that expensive running rigging too early and waiting for something to break.
Many non-racing sailors resist the advice to just ‘throw money at it’ when gear begins to show signs of wear, and that resistance is perfectly reasonable. Whether considering the financial drain, the environmental cost, or the time and labour invested in choosing and sourcing a replacement, keeping what you have but making it work longer is, more often than not, the best option.
What does end-for-ending do?
Sheets and halyards travel along regular paths with bends, chafe points, and stretch areas that age before the rest of the line. In whatever fashion the bitter end is attached to its fixed point (headsail clew, mainsheet block, etc), swapping the working areas will change the dynamic points all along the line.
A roller-furled jib, for example, will have its sheets attached at the clew, run through a turning block (probably on a track) and made off somehow, usually after wrapping around a winch. A sheet that is led outside shrouds will bend and chafe against themwhen not in use include the shrouds, the block, the winch, and the cleat (or self-tailing jaws, though I recommend cleating the line as well for extra security). Under sail, those wear points move to different places on the sheet, but common points of sail will still wear in patterns that become visible over time.
