Inside the mast halyards

[Pink Flamingo]

Bought a '75 Mariner a few weeks ago in excellent condition,with the exception of the halyards and a few shrouds.
Am I asking for trouble to run all rope halyards inside the mast.
I noticed it seems to be filled with foam.
Any comments appriciated.

 

[Joe]

Internal halyards

That's a hard call. I have internal halyards on my 86 O'Day 222 and I love them. I have a Z-Spar mast and boom and the mast is set up with a winch for both halyards with clam cleats and horn cleats to tie them off. What I would do is take the mast down to a rigger and have him look at it. He could give you an idea if it's feasible to do this. You need room for the exit plates and the halyards. If he says it's a go, then maybe you could save a few bucks by removing the foam yourself somehow. Here's what my set-up looks like and it works great for me.
Joe

 

[Pink Flamingo]

Foam in the mast

Thanks Joe,in the meantime figured out how to remove the foam in the mast.
Level the mast on sawhorses or whatever is handy,plug up the open end with a rag and pour about half a gallon of lacquer thinner over about an hour into the mast.Make sure to do this outside! Leave it overnight and the next morning the foam is gone with just a little residue left.

 

[Joe11688]

Great idea!

If you can pick up a small single speed winch for your mast real cheap, it would make sweating up the halyards real easy. Not that you'd need the winch handle to crank it up, because I never use my handle for the mast winch or the the Gennie winches, but I usually get the sail up and take three wraps around the winch and sweat it up the rest of the way. Then, I lay the halyard in the clam cleat, pull the halyard off the winch drum and cleat it off on the horn cleat. You could probably accomplish the same task without the mast winch, though. I've found another good advantage of having a mast winch; It makes a great sail stop. All you need is a 12" piece of 3/16" braid line and tie it around the mast above the winch and under first sail slide with a slipped reef knot. I've been doing it this way for years, and it works great for me. Hey good luck with that!
Joe

 

[Joe11688]

Great idea!

If you can pick up a small single speed winch for your mast real cheap, it would make sweating up the halyards real easy. Not that you'd need the winch handle to crank it up, because I never use my handle for the mast winch or the the Gennie winches, but I usually get the sail up and take three wraps around the winch and sweat it up the rest of the way. Then, I lay the halyard in the clam cleat, pull the halyard off the winch drum and cleat it off on the horn cleat. You could probably accomplish the same task without the mast winch, though. I've found another good advantage of having a mast winch; It makes a great sail stop. All you need is a 12" piece of 3/16" braid line and tie it around the mast above the winch and under first sail slide with a slipped reef knot. I've been doing it this way for years, and it works great for me. Hey good luck with that!
Joe