Difficult Raising Main Halyard

[Mike and Joanne Stimmler]

Kevin,
I'm glad they treated you well as they have me. I'm sure I will have more work for them eventually.

Happy Sailing,
Mike

[Clay Greene]

Just FYI, an estimate of $1000 to $1500 to unstep and step your mast seems really high to me.  Our entire winter storage cost is in the middle of that range and includes the unstepping and stepping process (six months apart but that shouldn't make any difference).  The differential here for storing your boat mast down is anywhere between $100 and $500.  I would shop around and see if you can find a better deal. 

There is no reason you need the yard to do the work itself.  The top of the mast should come off relatively easily and then it is a simple process to replace the sheaves.  As I remember, there is a metal pin that goes through the center is secured by a cotter pin.  I would estimate it would take no more than 30 minutes unless you have a corroded bolt. 

One thing you may want to look at is to make sure that your main halyard is going over the starboard sheave.  Ours was going over our port sheave and then exiting the mast on the starboard side.  I thought that the lateral pull of the halyard caused some resistance on the sheave. 

We also took the halyard out of the deck organizer so that the halyard runs back directly from the mast collar block to the hole under the traveler.  I think that helped a bit.   

[gwp]

Per my earlier post....I am perplexed why adding purchase would not remedy this problem with much less cost and aggravation. Perhaps I'm missing something...but by installing an eye at the aft side of masthead and a block on mainsail headboard....the halyard would terminate at the eye, run down outside the mast and thru block at mainsail head, then back up to masthead sheave. I bet you could easily raise sail by hand without bb blocks, track systems etc. Only disadvantage is having about 45' more halyard on the cockpit while sail is raised. Of course, this is assuming the existing sheaves are in decent condition. The block remains with the halyard when not in use. Just shackle the block to the mainsail head to raise sail instead of the halyard end like normal. If I didn't have a furling main I can assure you I would try this set up.