Main halyard on 2002 B37

[Leviosa]

I just bought a B37 with a wire-to-rope halyard. I’ve got some work to do at the top of the mast, and I can’t go up the wire halyard, so the first step seems to be replacing it with a full rope halyard. I can’t inspect the sheave until I get up there, so can I get some confirmation from someone with a similarly-aged 36 or 37 that the sheave will accommodate rope as well as wire?

Thanks,

David

[Clivert]

Use your topping lift instead

[Yngmar]

The sheave may need replacing, because if there was a wire in it for a while, it may have roughened up the plastic sheave to the point where it could rapidly chew through a rope sitting in it. You'll have to inspect it to find out.

Clivert is right, use another halyard (including the topping lift, which by default is a full size spare halyard).

[Leviosa]

D'oh!  Of course!  Thank you very much for the reminder there! The topping lift should work nicely.

[Salty]

I just bought a B37 with a wire-to-rope halyard. I’ve got some work to do at the top of the mast, and ...........so can I get some confirmation from someone with a similarly-aged 36 or 37 that the sheave will accommodate rope as well as wire?

Thanks,

David

I’ve done exactly that on my B36(2002), so yes, the sheave will accommodate rope instead of wire, but as Clivert says use one of the other ropes that go to the mast head.
One place where my boat would go ashore each winter had a requirement for the mast to be removed every time. The boat was ten years old last time that happened and so while the mast was down there was a great opportunity to check out everything on the mast and do any maintenance tasks while keeping both feet firmly on the ground. At that age and with the same kind of part rope and part wire main halyard, the sheave had not suffered any damage. It’s now been seven years since the mast was last down, so it would be good to have it down to do another thorough check.

[Mirror45184]

I'd prefer not to climb or be hoisted on halyards I do not know the full history or age of. I have a climbing rope which I use for scaling masts. It is a long way down if the rope fails!

[Salty]

It’s not the distance you fall Mark, it’s the sudden stop when you get to the bottom that does the damage. But yes I quite agree and feed a separate rope through which I will have already examined, and only use the existing halyard to pull it through.

[Clivert]

It's only a problem if you haven't got a safety line on too

[Kibo]

Topping lift is usually a little thinner than the main halyard so be careful and as stated don't go up on just one line, use a safety line.

Either a harness around the mast that you can move up with the hoisting or, since you do have a main halyard - even a wire one, use that tied around you as a safety backup line would be my method in this case.