Going Wireless

[Jon]

Hi All,Am thinking about replacing my wire/rope halyards with all rope. I have a 1976 Catalina 27. Will I need to replace the masthead to do this? I haven't been up the mast yet, but it seems like the wire would be much smaller diameter than the rope. How does it feed through a notch or a hole? Any help would be greatly appreciated.Jon

 

[Garry @ S/V TASHTEGO]

Halyards

I have changed over to all rope halyards. The job requires changing the sheaves in the masthead. There are four sheaves. The main halyard goes up the front of the mast, over a sheave to the back side, over another sheave and down to the sail. The jib halyard does the opposite, up the back and down the front. I put a post somewhere in the archives on doing this with the mast up but I recommend that you do it with the mast down. You can renew the bulbs in your lights and check all the wiring at the same time. You can get the sheaves (and the halyards too if you want) from Catalina Direct at the web site below.

 

[jay]

no wire for me anymore

I did this job on my little C22 last year. I also led the lines to the cockpit for ease when I'm singlehanded. It is one of the best things I've done to the boat. Like Garry says it's an easy job with the mast down. Make sure you buy the low stretch line to make your new halyards.Good Luck, Jay

 

[Lorrie]

Wire/rope to all rope

Hi Jon,I wanted to replace my wire/rope halyards with all rope. Went on line and found all the diagrams, got new sheaves from Catalina (cheaper than CatalinaDirect)and then went aloft. Found out there is really no way to put the new sheaves in while hanging in a bosens chair on the old sheaves. LOL. So I side tied to a friends big ketch and climbed up their mast, swung over to my mast only to find that the sheaves would not fit. Gave up and bought some wire/rope halyards. My old sheaves were still good and the sails go up and down with ease. Unless you want to take the mast down and maybe have to replace entire masthead, I'd stick with wire/rope. Good luck!