pulleys at mid mast

[John]

Hello,On my beneteau 305, two pulleys with halyards are located in the front of the mast , one above the mid mast light and one below, could someone tell me what these are forThanksJohn

 

[Tim]

Spin pole lifts

My old First 32 (1983) had these as well. If you look at the original Beneteau brochures, and from what i understand, they used to use two spinnaker poles in Europe. Instead of dip-poling, or end-for-end gybing, they'd raise one and lower the other. There was even two spin pole mast cars on some of the old boats too. My boat had an Isomat mast and was a French-made boat. By the way, those exit sheaves never really worked great anyway. Anytime the pole was brought aft, it created an un-fair lead for the lift line and it would bind up.What year is your boat?Tim

 

[john]

year of boat

Hello Tim,Thanks for the info my boat is 1985 , the spar is z-spar from France, Following the info I am thinking about removing those two pulleys (halyards) since the system doesnt seem that efficient anywaysJohn

 

[Tim]

Suggestion

John,If you use a spinnaker pole and still require a pole-lift, here's a suggestion for you:Remove the old exit sheave(s) and replace one with a Harken double sheave exit block. That will allow the line to exit the mast going upward with no friction (lower sheave leads line out from inside of mast, upper sheave keeps line outside of mast). Then mount a swivel block on a bracket above the exit sheave. That allows the line to exit the mast upward with no friction, then up to a swivel block where it can allow the line to turn downward and support the pole at any angle. That's how the problem was solved on my old boat. I use the same double sheave on my new boat (B321) to allow the lazy cradle system to be lowered, it works great!Good luck,Tim

 

[John]

Trying this suggestion

Hello Tim,Will certainly try your method of spi rigging for better handling, hope to win a few races next season, again thanks for the info its greatly appreciatedregardsJohn