Running new halyard

[Jdaniel343]

Well I did it yesterday. I had installed all new halyards and sheets at the beginning of the year and some of these were longer than they needed to be.
I cut my main halyard where I needed to and tied a knot in the cut end and not the actual halyard end. When I pulled the main down the halyard end went up the inside of the mast and out the top.
Question: is there any way to some how get a new halyard line run thru the sheave without climbing to the top of the mast or lowering the mast?
Boat is a Catalina 27 TR.
In the mean time I already had a Boomkicker that I needed to install and will be installing this and using the topping lift line as a main halyard.

 

[Jackdaw]

No.

But fortunately your boat is masthead rigged, so you can STILL GET to the masttop!

 

[Joetech]

Attach a leader line to the old halyard. A line smaller than your halyard is attached to one end. You will need to remove any shackles you have attached to the halyard. What I do is use a line such as paracord and sew it to the old halyard with wiping twine. You need a smooth transition and it needs to be strong. Then pull the old halyard down through the mast. Attach the new halyard to the leader line in the same manor and pull it up through the mast. Detach the leader line and you have a new halyard in place. The mast being up or down is not relevant. Same process. Tape can be used to make a smoother transition between to two but don't rely on line alone.

 

[Joe]

..............Question: is there any way to some how get a new halyard line run thru the sheave without climbing to the top of the mast or lowering the mast?...............

The brief answer is NO. If the sheave is empty you have nothing to use for a messenger.

You might be able to fabricate some type of extension hook that cold be attached to the topping lift or even a long pole with the hook .... but heck, by the time you figure that out and get adept at using it you could simply pay someone $50 to go up the mast and drop down the new messenger.

 

[NoAgenda]

Tie about 3 feet of an old bike chain to the halyard for a weight. Makes it easier to fish thru the mast

 

[pateco]

If your old halyard is still there, what we did was cut off the old shackle, and use some Zip ties and Para cord to butt splice the new line to the old one. We needed to do it this way since our new halyard had the shackle factory spliced into one end of the line. Doing it this way allowed us to pull the new halyard from the top of the mast down though the blocks leaving the shackle splice intact.

 

[KrustyKrab]

Oh no, dude! You did mess up. When changing halyards I just sewed old to new and wrapped with some tape to make a smooth transition. This way there are no bulges to get stuck in pulleys and such.

Or are you saying that you cut the new one to make it shorter, but tied the knot in the wrong piece - the scrap piece? Even so, dropping your main should not pull your halyard all the way into the mast or that means you cut it way too short?