halyard pulleys

[chrisgnh]

Good morning,
I am a recent Venture 21 owner with a lot of work ahead of me and a few questions. My V21 is in rough shape and has more than a few pieces missing. I am trying to figure out how the main and jib halyard are supposed to look (and where I might find replacement pieces).
At the top of my mast is what looks like the remnants of a really worn out set of pulleys that were probably for the halyards.

Any one have any photos of there venture 21 mast top? I'd like to see close ups of the halyard pulleys and the jib rigging as well. Does the jib ride up the forestay? Or do I need to rig a separate line. Any help would be appreciated.

PS: If I have to buy new pulley/parts. What would be a good source - used are good enough for me if that is an option.

 

[timebandit]

Here is what mine looks like to give you an idea.

I drilled out the rivet for the axel for the pulley and replaced it with one from West Marine.

The piece mounted on top of the mast cap looks like the connection for the backstay but with rust showing on the washer looks like the po may have modified it.

 

[ChockFullOnuts222]

Yes, those pulleys are for the halyards. The leading edge of your jib is supposed to hank onto the forestay and ride up it; so there is no need to rig up a separate line.

As for the pulleys, those are called cheek blocks (pulleys that are stationary-mounted on the side of something). West Marine sells cheek blocks (called head blocks on their web page). Depending on how everything is riveted together on your mast, you might even be able to just buy the pulley wheel itself and rebuild your existing cheek blocks. I've never done it before, though, so I don't know how easy that would be. Some rivets don't drill out as easy as others.

 

[Smithy]

I had to replace mine as well, bought a double cheeck block from Bacon, and was very happy with it... lets me run my main halyard and topping lift from the same general point on the masthead.

My jib halyard runs through a block that's mounted on the forestay tangs, there's a bolt running through there, and the stay, and two blocks, ride on it. The second is for the spinnaker topping lift, and I have a 5th block up there on the starboard side for pennants, attached to the shroud tang.

 

[chrisgnh]

Thanks

Thanks everyone for you helpful responses. With your help I figured out the cheek blocks I needed to buy.

BTW: What size halyard should I be using? From what I can tell 1/4" polypro halyard line, with a breaking strength of 2000 lbs looks to be more than adequate.

 

[Justin_NSA]

Thanks everyone for you helpful responses. With your help I figured out the cheek blocks I needed to buy.

BTW: What size halyard should I be using? From what I can tell 1/4" polypro halyard line, with a breaking strength of 2000 lbs looks to be more than adequate.

It might be fine strength-wise but a thicker line will be easier to get hold of and pull. I only use thin line on my furler and that's because it requires it.

 

[tkanzler]

That's a good point. I just put a spinnaker mast hound, block, and halyard on my 26X, and used 5/16" Sta-Set because a) it's the size MacGregor recommended, b) I wanted to keep weight aloft down (3 halyard plus topping lift plus antenna up there), and c) for the very light load of hoisting an asymmetric with a sock, it's big enough. But for any kind of load, something bigger has better 'hand', like 7/16" or so. It's hard to grip something that small, at least with my mitts.

Edit: Blue Water Yachts lists 5/16" Sampson yacht braid for the halyards for what looks like essentially all the Macs.

http://bwyachts.com/BWYParts/PartsList.htm

 

[chrisgnh]

The blue water yacht site looks like a great reference for original parts - thnks for that one.

 

[tkanzler]

That's where I got the new mast hound for the spinnaker halyard from (same parts as the forestay hound), along with new shrouds and a few other odd items. When I priced making my own shrouds, I discovered that I could buy them ready-made, complete with tangs at the top and the male half of the adjuster at the bottom, for about what it would cost me to make my own.

They don't exactly take orders on-line, in that you send in the request, and they call to get the credit card info, except that the second time I ordered, they reused the CC info, and I didn't know the order had gone through when the box showed up. But I guess that keeps costs down, which I'm all for. :dance: