I have a 26.5 Hunter and per the subject line I will be rigging it for my first time. Currently the mast is down as I am installing a system to raise and lower, mast has a fractional setup, on the forward side of the mast a little above the spreader is a small loop for what I am not sure. Can anyone shed some light on this for me?
1st time rigging question
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Maybe 1" long riveted on top and bottom looks like something a lanyard my be attached to. The placement made me think that it might be a lifting point but it is too small for that in my opinion. I can add a pic later as I am not near it mow.
Here's the pics, and it is very close to the center point of the mast as far as weight goes, so it could be for lifting but just two small rivets would scare me for lifting by this.
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Does your mast have any other gear on the front that you don't understand, like a track with a slide and ring on it or maybe just a ring? That looks like the attachment point for a spinnaker pole lift to me.
That ring is not strong enough to lift the mast from, if you try to use it as a lifting point, it will break, or rip the rivets right out of the mast.
You may have a spot where a short pole like another spreader can attach to the forward side of the mast. That often (but incorrectly) called a gin pole. Do some searching on the forums for gin pole as I recall a discussion among a couple people not too long ago about how they rig theirs.
You may have a spot where a short pole like another spreader can attach to the forward side of the mast. That often (but incorrectly) called a gin pole. Do some searching on the forums for gin pole as I recall a discussion among a couple people not too long ago about how they rig theirs.
My best guess is it's something that a previous owner installed. If you swap out the rivets for tapped in bolts it would do the job to attach a block for a pole topping lift for your spinnaker. A mast hoisting device would use the jib halyard to better affect than this thing. If you don't use a symmetrical spinnaker and pole I would just remove it.
I agree on using the jib halyard to raise the mast, but I why do you say replace the rivets before using the padeye to attach a spinnaker topping lift? Rivets are normally stronger than tapped threads / bolts (and they don't vibrate loose).
I don't disagree with anything you said, but I believe if you compare a stainless rivet to an equal sized bolt that is tapped into the mast under load, the tapped threads will fail and the bolt will pull out of the mast before the rivet almost every time. Maybe I'm just naive here, but I believe most parts of a mast are riveted and not screwed together by the spar manufacturers for a reason.
Now if you are comparing an aluminum rivet to a stainless bolt tapped into the mast I really don't know which would last longer.
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