How is it Done?--Halyards

[sleather]

How is it Done?--Halyards E23-E27?

This has puzzled me for a long time. My mast has 4 sheaves w/ (1)internal main & (1)internal jib halyard. The 4 sheaves make sense if you have external halyards(WHAT DO YOU HAVE?) With 2 sheaves unused, I would really like to run 2 ea. internal main & jib halyards w/2 new exit plates @ the mast base. At this time I have one long halyard line from the pulpit to the stern over the unused sheaves as a backup.

What I can't figure out w/o disassembling the sheave pack, is the mast section open under the crane???? I also want to replace the light wiring, wind machine wiring & VHF antenna lead, to bring everything up to date. This will be a spring '08 project, so I've got time to ponder, any input appreciated.

Also is the spinnaker halyard(for those that have one) internal or external?

Hurray, my first attachment worked

 

[Rocinante33]

Some people have added internal PVC as a wire "conduit." If so, you may see pop rivets up the side of the mast to hold the PVC in place.

As far as adding halyards when you have spare sheaves, why not? Get a piece (or two) of old bicyle chain. Tie a small messenger line 2X longer than the height of the mast to it & feed the bike chain over the sheave. Tie the line off at the base of the mast. Then, with the mast up, lower the bike chain until you can fish it out of whatever opening in the lower mast you want to use. Gravity will pull it down the mast. You can use a strong magnet to help fish it out.

 

[sleather]

Necessity is the mother of invention, I never would have thought of the bike chain & magnet!!! I've got a whoop-ass salvage magnet so that "might" work on the horizontal too. Great idea, w/ a light line you could probably get everything to go exactly where you want it to go. It's going to be a mess in there!! I'll try it on my whisker pole.

 

[Kevin Johnston]

Treading line

Using a light string line at one end with a cotton ball taped to the end and a shop vac at the other end is pretty effective. Tie the halyard on to the string line once it it ran and your there.

 

[Glyn Judson]

Another use for a magnet.

All, On the subject of magnets, another cool use for one is when planning to add a through hull fitting in the hull with the boat on the hard. Tape a magnet or small chunk of ferrous metal on the inside of the hull where you want the hole. Then using a magnetic stud finder on the outside, locate the chunk you taped on the inside and simply zero in on the exact spot where you want the hole, mark it and drill away. Cool huh?

By the way, a coat hanger poked through the exit hole on the mast also works well to snag the bike chain or the line it's tied to. It's then a simple matter of snagging it with the hanger hook and pulling the messenger line out. Glyn Judson, E31 hull #55, Marina del Rey, CA.

 

[sleather]

Anybody have an answer to the "4 sheave" & what's under them questions???, and how is the "wiring harness" anchored to the mast???

And after all this I'm following the advice in the "similar thread", (Caring for your halyards)!!! They were never protected during storage!

 

[Glyn Judson]

Anchoring a wire harness.

Steve, Welcome to the list. As far as anchoring your new wire harness is concerned, every break-out from the main body of the harness will act toward doing that. First of all, remove the old harness and lay it out as a sample for you to see where to splice the break-outs in the new one. When making it, use the same wire color as the old and strip off 1" of the insulation from a given wire in the main harness for whatever lights power it and at the same location as the old harness. Now strip 2" off the insulation from a wire of the same color, wrap it around the main harness wire and fully solder them together. The splice to a light should come off the main harness wire so that the two wires form a V. That way there's less strain on the soldered joint. Put another way, pair the two wires to be soldered ABOVE the 1" splice and wrap the jumper wire DOWN the main harness wire. The finished splice should lead up and away from the main harness like the branches of a tree leading away from the trunk. Be sure to have previously slid a length of shrink wrap insulation, say 3" long on the main wire BELOW the splice so you can then slide it up and over the solder joint and seal the splice with heat. Of course, do this ahead of time for all splices along the length of the harness. By the time you've spliced two wires for a steamng light, spreader lights and an anchor light at the top, the load will have been spread enough that anchoring of any sort really isn't necessary. If you don't have a 1" PVC conduit already in the mast, consider using plastic wire ties around the main harness with the tails left on every three feet or so to help prevent wire slap in the hollow mast. Hint: Consider doing away with the four wire plug altogether and instead attach a treminal strip in an out of the way spot inside the boat near the mast base. You can do the same with your radio coax connector too. This way the connections will remain uncorroded. Mast removal simply means unscrewing the wire lugs from below and feeding them outside through the hole that's already in the deck. Seal that hole and wires using a nonsetting putty like you see around the tubes on the back of old refrigerators. The putty lasts for ever and can be reused indefinately. All this assumes that you don't already have sockets on the deck adjacent to your mast for the wire harness and the coax. Good luck, Glyn Judson, E31 hull #55, Marina del Rey, CA

 

[Glyn Judson]

Anchoring a harness.

Steve, I forgot to suggest that you tie a figure eight in the top two wires after they emerge from the mast head. That knot will act as a srtain relief on the wires to the anchor light. Glyn Judson, E31 hull #55, Marina del Rey, CA