Rigging a 'new' mast, main halyard size?

[reidmefirst]

I recently bought a 'new' 7.9 (hull #493). The boat came with an unused new-style mast, made as one of the club buys some years ago by the original owner. My new local friend/boat hauler wanted the original mast for a hotrod project, and I figured I don't really have the room to store a second mast, so made the decision to swap the rigging over to the new one and give him my original mast.

We de-rigged the original mast and started pulling the lines through the new mast and ran into some fun challenges. The main being, I can't get the main halyard around that sheave at the top of the mast. It seems like the new style masts have a super duper tight clearance up top, or maybe somehow my mast had a too-large sheave installed?

I'm thinking to try and find a 5/16" line to use as a halyard (my boat is rigged with original 3/8" line). I wonder if anyone has encountered this issue and had any tips. We managed to pull some clothesline through it after snaking some stiff metal wire down the mast, but tried taping the halyard to the clothesline/chase line (no go, the tape joint was too stiff/bulky to make it around the sheave), and sewing the halyard to the clothesline (also no go, the joint is still too bulky).

[BarryE]

Your problem is common even with the old mast. I resorted to removing the sheaves, running the halyards and then reinstalling. Also, most of us have switched to a decent low stretch 5/16. Additionally, most of us have "crossed" the halyards in the mast so that the port halyard which is most typically used in a port rounding spinnaker set is "jumped" by a crew member on the starboard side.

[Mebad]

My wife and I went through this a month ago.

What worked for us was running paracord up the mast and pulling the 3/8 halyard down. The paracord was stitched to the last 3" of the halyard, low profile and flexible, and it was snug but easier to jam the end over the sheave. This was on the old style of mast while laying horizontal of course.

Good luck!

[reidmefirst]

I'm glad I'm not crazy, at least!

I went out and bought 80 feet of 5/16" low stretch line at the local sail shop late this afternoon. Aside: who knew that we have a local sail shop in central Iowa?

I'm going back out to the boat tomorrow morning and hopefully will finish rigging this @(#*%&ing mast before the weekend . At least now I understand why riggers charge a lot of money for doing this stuff.

[reidmefirst]

Aaaand it's done! 5/16" halyard was super easy to run around that sheave, it passed right through. Ran new chase lines for the lights, too, and even replaced the bulbs with LED.

Sounds like we'll have a couple of friends to help step the mast on Friday where I'll get to take her for the first sail (or, maybe, motor, to start). Much excite. Thanks for validating my thought on this!