Deck organizers for a 37.5

[bugsboat]

Has anyone replaced the deck organizers under the deck hood? Ours are in bad shape with sharp corners and edges. Not sure how that happened, but has been like that since we purchased the boat. I want to replace them with Harken 4 sheave low profile organizers. The old organizers are fraying our new lines! The hood also looks like it is too far away from the traveler and the line on the leeward side gets caught in the space between the hood and traveler; then is a bugger to get free.
Any experience with this would be great!

 

[charliegrau]

Don't know if it will solve all your problems, but I believe you can replace just the sheaves on the original deck organizers. That should solve your line fraying problem. Also, be sure the line hasn't been replaced with larger line. My PO "upgrade" some of my running rigging to a larger size, and although it has a nicer "hand" it is harder to get it to cleat in the winches, route through the clutches, and overlaps the sheaves. I am replacing much of it w/slightly smaller lines as specified in my owner's manual.
-charlie

 

[bugsboat]

The boat is owned by two women and I am trying to give us as much purchase as possible. The ball bearing sheaves will give us a little more purchase. That being said, I will still have to take the hood off to do any of this work. Just wondered if there was anyone out there who had removed the hood. I don't think it will be that hard, just time consuming. Thanks for your response! Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[charliegrau]

I have taken the hood off my 380 several times. On my boat there are actually two panels - the large one just forward of the companionway (companionway slides under it) and another, smaller panel forward of that with the dorade vents. The large panel has a solar panel in it and the wire from the solar panel runs through the flange of both panels...if you are set up like that be careful of the wires and be prepared to cut and then butt splice them later. The panels come off pretty easily - just held in with screws...but not all the screws were the same length on my boat - don't replace any of the screws with longer ones...you risk interfering with the companionway slider. Be sure to caulk all the holes when you reassemble. This is a good time to rebed anything underneath the panels. I just finished that project....which included refilling and redrilling all the screw holes so I could get a tight, waterproof fit. Solved a leak problem I had, but turned into more work than I expected. (when does that not happen?).

 

[bugsboat]

There is always MORE work than expected. Thanks for the reply and the insight. I am ordering the Harken deck organizers to replace the originals. I took the solar panel off last fall and it is working like a champ; so there must be a problem with the charging panel behind the battery selector. Again, thanks for your help.
Jennie

 

[Steve Dion]

I would suggest that you use whatever organizers have the exact same bolt pattern. You may run into some issues if you need to drill/tap additional holes.

If you really want to minimize your work you really don't want to be redoing those holes.

Garhauer Marine can also make custom ones too. You can also contact the SBO store and see what they have available.

 

[bugsboat]

Took the hood off today and was an easy job. The starboard 4 sheave deck organizer had a bolt that was bent almost in half; took a lot of finesse to get the bolt out. There must have been something drastic to break the stainless steel shield around the sheaves. Harken will arrive on Tuesday and I hope to get them installed soon. Thanks to everyone for their insight into this project. Happy Sailing!!!