One of my first thoughts about why the tang was there was that since it goes past the darth, it would take the wear nicely. However, when two parts meet, one of them is going to wear, and when it's plastic against metal, the plastic darth is gonna wear. Plastic against rope, yeah the rope might wear, but it's easier to replace rope than the darth. That's also why it is suggested to swap halyards end-for-end every couple years. AND, at least the halyard can be lowered to be inspected. Not so with the darth. As BadO is finding out, now someone has to go up.
While I'm on the soapbox.... BadO's pic is a bit dark to tell for sure, but it looks like the rope halyard is knoted around that shackle. That looks like a small shackle for that big of a boat. The contact/wear surface between the shackle and ring is very small- a high-wear situation.... The ring in the tang, I would have to think it is not a solid SS ring, so I assume it's a split ring (cotter ring?). Again, not very strong. And again, the ring-to-tang contact is worse than the shackle because the holes in the tang were probably square edges mating to the ring. Very little contact surface.... I cannot tell from the pic how the tang is secured to the drum. To assume the drum is aluminum, I would have to believe that the SS tang inside the drum is probably wearing into the drum since the upper forestay is an area subject to high-vibration/pulsating. I would have thought securing the tang to the outside of the drum would be better, but maybe there's a reason why it's this way?... I don't know if it's possible on this setup, but if it were my furler, I would put a D-shackle on the drum, and secure the rope to the D.
BadO, did you consider securing a hook to the main halyard to jockey it around front to snag the jib halyard with? A coathanger straightened should do. It looks like you only have to pull the jib halyard out far enough to clear the darth offset. At the very least, if you snag the rope part of the halyard, you can pull it down (if it's long enough) so maybe you can "whip" it free. It might take some trial and error, plus someone with binocs to spot you, but I think this would work.
While I'm on the soapbox.... BadO's pic is a bit dark to tell for sure, but it looks like the rope halyard is knoted around that shackle. That looks like a small shackle for that big of a boat. The contact/wear surface between the shackle and ring is very small- a high-wear situation.... The ring in the tang, I would have to think it is not a solid SS ring, so I assume it's a split ring (cotter ring?). Again, not very strong. And again, the ring-to-tang contact is worse than the shackle because the holes in the tang were probably square edges mating to the ring. Very little contact surface.... I cannot tell from the pic how the tang is secured to the drum. To assume the drum is aluminum, I would have to believe that the SS tang inside the drum is probably wearing into the drum since the upper forestay is an area subject to high-vibration/pulsating. I would have thought securing the tang to the outside of the drum would be better, but maybe there's a reason why it's this way?... I don't know if it's possible on this setup, but if it were my furler, I would put a D-shackle on the drum, and secure the rope to the D.
BadO, did you consider securing a hook to the main halyard to jockey it around front to snag the jib halyard with? A coathanger straightened should do. It looks like you only have to pull the jib halyard out far enough to clear the darth offset. At the very least, if you snag the rope part of the halyard, you can pull it down (if it's long enough) so maybe you can "whip" it free. It might take some trial and error, plus someone with binocs to spot you, but I think this would work.
