What is this on my masthead?

[Scott]

Good topic, flyhop

I have a spinnaker crane, too, but I didn't know what it was until today! I think it is offset to one side, either port or strbd, can't remember.Fred, did you punch through your mast for the internal halyard or was it commissioned that way.I think somebody asked about the mast head sheaves on another topic ... I have a book that describes 4 sheaves, 2 in line on port side and 2 in line on strbrd side. The port side sheaves are for main and primary genoa. This is the confusing part ... one auxillary halyard was described as passing over both sheaves on the strbrd side. Why is that?I never would think that a rope halyard could wear a shroud bolt to failure. Scary thought. Is it normal to replace the bolts when replacing shrouds? I would guess that you would never be able to inspect and see the wear before failure happens.

 

[Fred Ficarra]

Never heard of the need for a halyard conduit

Only for wires to keep them away from halyards. Rob, you should be fine as long as your halyard installation is close to line of sight between turning block, top and bottom. The problem some folks have had as I understand it is that they ran their halyards without seeing what they were doing. The halyard went too far and over the nearby bolt. Think of the top shroud tang bolt. The front halyard should pass fair in front of it. Same for the rear halyard. It should pass fair at the rear. If the bolt stays in the middle you're fine. It's the sharp angle, even at little loads that causes disasters. The bolts near the masts' center wouldn't fail nearly as fast. Make sense? My mind's drifting to a varnish job on the boats' floors I'm headed out too.

 

[Fred Ficarra]

Scott, I've talked about the slob dealer that

commissioned our boat. Your question is yet another example of his trashy work. The hole in the mast was made by me. The dealer cut a hole higher and to the starboard side of the centerline. It was so off center that raising the chute was a two man job. If the wind filled it early, forget it. The dealer, when confronted by me the next summer said that the hole had to be off center because of the wiring conduit. I gazed in amazement and then recovered my wits and said that the conduit is at the rear of the mast as part of the extrusion near the mainsail track. No rope can touch it. He threw up his hands and walked out of the room. True! And this was in front of his partner. That man was working on identical Kenyon masts for several years and didn't think of it. I had cut the proper hole just prior to this conversation. I wasn't going to let him touch my boat again. I closed the old hole with marinetex during our rebuild. Works great. Oh, the dealer went out of business that very year. Wonder why.P.S. As to bolt replacement, I hope not. I didn't change mine. They 'looked' good.

 

[Alan]

It's called a "spinnaker crane bail". Be sure when you hang the turning block from it that it clears the top of the forestay. Fred...it's hard to see the picture of your block, but it sure looks very close to the forestay.flyhop, I would consider making your jib halyard bowline much smaller. Better still, put a long eye splice in and for sure decreasing the size of that halyard. Looks like you have a lot of friction with it.

 

[RAD]

And I always thought it was something for the sky hook to grabI'm sure glad I read this forum ;D

 

[flyhop]

New halyards...great responses

Alan...I took the picture the day before I bought the boat as part of the survey. The large bowline tied in the jib halyard shackle was from the previous owner. Truth is, all the running rigging has been replaced as it was all in awful shape. While I was up there, I found that 3 of the 4 sheaves were frozen in place. Yikes! Since then, I pulled the masthead off, and the local machine shop got me fixed up. Anyway, new halyards, complete with eye splices, and a roller furler have been installed. She's really starting to look good.For the good of the group, I did find something interesting. This mast is a Kenyon spar, and the masthead is attached to the top of the mast by two bolts (see pic). Even though the boat has (and had at purchase) all rope halyards, I can tell you that it USED to have wire-to-rope halyards. How do I know? The top through-bolt holding the masthead had been partially cut through. Upon removal of the bolts, I looked through the hole and could see part of the halyard. I'm figuring that only a wire could have put a notch in that through bolt. You bet I've have replaced those bolts. Masthead's also got a new coat of paint on it. And the sheaves are fully functional again. I am amazed at what simple neglect can do to a boat. By the way, I tracked down a previous owner before I bought this boat to inquire about any problems he had had. Boat was solid according to him, but he had held onto a drifter sale specially made for this ODay28. And, it's a good deal. Looks like a spinnaker halyard block will be installed shortly.Thanks again to everybody for their input.