Stuck Jib Halyard

[secondwind7285]

HELP...!
Hello All,
I'm a new member as my Wife and I have only recently purchased a 1980 H30 Cherubini. We have been going through the usual surprises ( both good & not so good ) involved in sorting out all of the projects needed to bring this venerable old boat back to proud sailing condition.

We are pretty handy in general and have done a lot of work already, but recently ran into something that has me stumped and annoyed.
the boat had seen very little use in the past 3 or 4 years and seems to have been stored with the genoa left on the old SATREAMSTAY furler. The sunstrip on the genoa is in tatters, but the sail seems serviceable. Just this past weekend we moved the baot to our new slip and had a great daysail getting there. We then tried to lower the genny so we could take it home and sew on a new sunstrip. Surprise #64.... IT WON'T BUDGE!
It may now be obvious why the previous owner left it on all winter, and probably winters past. I even tried leading a line from the tack to a block attached to the stemhead and aft to a sheet winch to use as a powerful downhaul.... won't budge!! Does anyone have any ideas. We don't trust the old main halyard to go aloft. and have no spare. There is no visible damage vivible from the deck... HELP!! Our only recourse may be a pro rigger.

Thanks all.
Bob

 

[Steve Dion]

Bob: You can go up the stick on another halyard. Chances are the sheave is broken. This is not uncommon. If this is the case, you may want to take it to a yard and they can have their crew to up with a cherry picker (if available) to replace the sheave. Be sure to replace all of them weather you go drop the stick or have someone do it with the cherry picker.

 

[Ed Schenck]

Have to agree with Steve, a lot of yards have cherry pickers for servicing mastheads. Interestingly my 1979 Hyde Streamstay still works well. But there have been posts about the halyard swivel corroding onto the solid-rod. It could also be halyard wrap. Worst case would be if the sail's luff rope has gotten wrotten and is jammed in the rod. Then you might have to cut it off after taking the furler down.

Can you use binoculars and check it? Either way you have to go up there or have someone go up there. You can see the detail of the furler on Rig-Rite.

 

[Tim Dalton]

masthead

You might also consider a new main halyard. Tie a tracer onto the old halyard pull it through and then attach the tracer to a new main halyard. Sounds like you will replace it anyway. I haul myself up the mast using a bosun's chair and the mainsheet. I attach the boom end of the mainsheet to the halyard, let all the line in the sheet out and then haul it up the mast. I attach my bosun's chair to the mainsheet and then haul myself up the mast to the spreaders. I then have someone haul the halyard to the masthead, haul myself up the rest of the way and do my work. You might get up there with a big screwdriver and some lubricant and just find it jammed. On my boat, the jib halyard would always wrap around the forestay. I have a Harken furling systems. To remedy this, I attached a short wire pendant of about 1.5 feet and that keeps it from fouling. I don't know if this could be the problem but its worth taking a look through your binoculors as someone mentioned.