20 years with a misrun main halyard

[David Sanner]

I had to pull my keel stepped mast to replace a split/jammed sheave and do few other things.  When I pulled the mast cap off I was surprised to see that the main halyard was run over top of the bolt that holds the mast cap on, then angled slightly incorrectly on the wrong side through bolt that holds the cap shrouds on and then on the wrong side of the spreader bar.  I'm guessing it's been like this for 15-20+ years.  Previous owners!

With the new ball bearing sheaves I can finally raise the main from the cockpit by hand!

Pictures tell the story... the 2nd image is inside of the mast cap which show the route the halyard took over the bolt.

The "easy" fix for this if you think your halyard may be misrun is to remove the mast cap bolt, the halyards should fall into place with a little tension and then reinsert the bolt.  

[Rick Allen]

Yikes!!

This just means you'll be winning even MORE races in the Bay!

[Ron Hill]

Guys : What David forgot to mention is that the mast cap bolt also holds the upper shrouds (Head & Back) in place!!

A thought

[David Sanner]

The worn bolt holds the mast cap in place... or keeps it lined up where it should be to let the forestay and the backstay do all the pulling down.  I'd like to think if it had failed the mast cap would have stayed in place but to Ron's point it might have gotten interesting real quick.

Just below this bolt, less that a foot, is the bolt that goes through the mast that connects to (along with 2 tangs) the upper shrouds.  Inside of the mast is an aluminum compression tube that was also partially worn through by this halyard (yup wrong side of that as well).

I guess little things can cause big trouble if they go unnoticed long enough.

[sailaway]

I changed my main halyard sheave to roller bearing, with roller bearing in the deck organizer my main still goes up hard. I don't believe I have a miss run halyard. Has anyone found a solution to this problem. Charlie

[Stu Jackson]

Charlie,

Even with your enhancements mains are reportedly still hard to get up from the cockpit.

Issues include:

---  sail track lubrication or lack thereof

---  some use sail tracks or Harken systems, we have the Batt Car system, but the components are heavy even though the rollers make the sail come down like a simple blind

---  many haul their mains up from the mast with either someone tailing from the cockpit or when singlehanding using a horn cleat or a cam cleat on the mast to hold the halyard, and then trim the halyard from the cockpit