Halyard direction through the sheaves

[brockangelo]

Hey all. I’m replacing my halyards today and one thing I didn’t pay attention to was the direction that I should feed the halyards through the sheaves.
Running the jib halyard through the port sheaves feels like I should feed the halyard from back to front, so the shackle pulls up to the front of the mast. And it feels like the main halyard, on the port side, should be feed through from front to back, so that the shackle pulls up on the back side of the mast. Does that sound right? Or does it really matter?

 

[brockangelo]

I would think this matters quite a bit, but there’s no mention of it in the instructions and I couldn’t find anything online that mentioned it.
This pic is unrelated

 

[brockangelo]

Another question while I’m at this:

there is an empty pin at the front of the mast, above where the forestay is attached. What do people use this for? Is it for a spinnaker halyard to attach?

 

[brockangelo]

Well I managed to find the answer, and yes it does seem to matter that you put it in back to front for the job and front to back for the main.

 

[Joe]

Well I managed to find the answer, and yes it does seem to matter that you put it in back to front for the job and front to back for the main.

You'd quickly find out if you had it right when you tried to raise the sails. It won't work the other way.
If you are unsure about these type of things, it helps to visualize or sketch out the problem and the answer usually presents itself.