E29 masthead sheaves

[wintu]

is this an original factory setup ? to me the sheaves are really close together and one side is already cutting the mast. as i was the one who did the winching and my wife was taking pictures and checking things a cant really say if there were any welded holes from the past
thanks Paul

 

[Gmilburn]

My E29 Tall MastHead

Here's mine from two angles--hope this helps. I do not see any cutting into the mast as you have.

 

[wintu]

thanks for posting those pictures. the distance between the bolts looks the same. i found this thread http://www.ericsonyachts.org/infoexchange/showthread.php?t=7214&highlight=masthead+sheaves and its looks like my sheaves have really deep groove. maybe they are not original to the boat. here is pictures of my sheaves

 

[Emerald]

The deep groove in the sheaves are for wire to rope type halyards, and would be in keeping with the type of sheaves on my prior E-27. However, the sheave diameter and location should be such that they don't allow the halyards to cut into the masthead, so something isn't right, which you've already figured out....

 

[Guy Stevens]

Ah the old lack of maintaince sheave issue

Your sheaves stopped turning at some point, and the wire halyards cut deep groves in them that then allowed the halyard to sink into the sheave. Once the wire rope came out of the sheave at a lower angle because of the groove cut into the sheave, it is now cutting groves in the mast.

Or you have really small sheaves replaced by an earlier owner, from the photos it looks like you have sheaves that quit turning well, and a deep grove cut though.

Take the mast DOWN, have a welder repair the slits in the mast, get some new sheaves from Garhauer, put the whole thing back together correctly. Remember to look at everything while it is down, and to repair or replace everything that you find wrong. This mast is well past it's maintenance point!

This reminds me of a mast that the owner had cut the SS axle in the sheaves in half after cutting through the sheaves. He said that he had wondered why it was so hard to get the sails up.

Also this is a good time to get rid of the wire to rope halyards and get something made in the last century in there. Depending on the use of the boat there are a number of good choices.

 

[wintu]

thank you guys . tomorrow im going to my boat and i will take closer look and try to measure OD to see what is going on there

 

[simdim]

Just went trough this drill this spring. Replaced original sheaves with rope grooved sheaves from Garhauer and had not looked back.
I am trying to figure out what I had done with "after" pictures, but here are "before"

 

[Tbacon]

Good day, What size sheaves did you replace the wire halyard ones with? Will the original ones accomodate an adequate size halyard? My sheaves work well but I am also going to replace my halyards that are wire on my 74 E29' and I am going to go to all rope as well. Thanks.

 

[simdim]

Tbacon,
I had replaced them with 30MH from Garhauer ([FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]ID: 1/2" OD: 2-3/4"[/FONT] width 9/16).
My sheave pins however are 3/8" so I had talk with Mark over there and they had adjusted ID from 1/2" to 3/8".
I had also reworked shims "sandwich" and added thin Plexiglas sides so sheave bearings do not come in contact with sheave-box.
I had thought long and hard to put halyards inside the mast while doing this project but the KISS principal prevailed. Watching/helping one of our club members re-fish parted inside halyard convinced me that I had made a right decision ( I know this borders on religious argument and I am just stating my humble opinion ). Good luck on the project.

Cheers,

 

[wintu]

Hi Simdim
it would be great if you can post those "after" pictures . if you can find them im specially interested to see that plexiglass btw. i still didn't have chance to check my sheaves again for O.D so no news there
Thanks