Fairlead swivel block for wire halyard

[Denise McDonald]

Greetings, we need to replace the fairlead block that attaches to our mast, which the wire portion of the main halyard runs through. We have found a couple that might work, but they all seem to have plastic sheaves. The former one appears to have a metal sheave and we think that the wire portion of the halyard would rip right through the plastic ones after just a few runs. Does anyone have any suggestions where we might find something like this? I have a feeling this was original to the boat which is a 1975 E 27. We looked at West Marine and I’ve looked online so maybe I’m Searching for the wrong part? I have attached pictures so any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[gabriel]

Might be time to change over to an all rope halyard and use plastic sheaves.

 

[Denise McDonald]

Lol yes that was a thought... the halyard is just in really good shape so we were trying to get more use out of it. But thank you, that’s probably what we’ll end up doing

 

[gabriel]

Lol yes that was a thought... the halyard is just in really good shape so we were trying to get more use out of it. But thank you, that’s probably what we’ll end up doing

I really liked this one from defender, has a low stretch spectra core and a polyester cover for durability and economy. comes looped in the end so you can thread it through:

Novabraid ARGUS Main Halyard with Pre-Spliced Shackle

Features: Novabraid ARGUS Main Halyard is a Pre-Spliced Main Halyard that features a Spectra/MFP UV stabilized and color coded core for low elongation and light weight The 16 Carrier high tenacity marine coated polyester cover grips well in rope

www.defender.com

I don’t think it was any lighter than the wire rope it replaced though

 

[Loren Beach]

About 18 years ago, last time our mast was down for a re-rig, I had the factory aluminum sheaves at the top all removed and trued up on a lathe. This was to change over to all-rope halyards, and provided a smooth surface for them. Those OEM alum. sheaves were scratched up like the one in the picture that starts this thread.
I wonder if you can find a friend with a lathe to do this - you'd have remove each sheave and then put it back.