NewbieSailorGirl
New member
Hi - don't know if I'm in the right place here or not (as you can see from my name I'm a Newbie ;/ ) However, I'll go for it anyway.
I have a jam cleat at the top of the mast on my dinghy for the main halyard - one of those 5cm long v-shaped things with sort of teeth on the sides to grip the halyard. It's a pain in the a**e when returning to shore in a wind and needing to quickly get the mainsheet down with one hand whilst holding onto the boat with the other and trying to keep it pointing into the wind as I'm removing the centreboard and getting the rudder up using my teeth and left foot! So, I've fitted another cleat at the bottom of the mast to make life easier, which is working fine. However.... the little s**t at the top of the mast still wants to be part of the action and will trap the halyard as and when it feels like it.
Removing it would be the obvious solution but it's been there so long it's become part of the mast and would entail major surgery which I'd like to avoid cos, basically, I'd have no idea where to start and am worried about causing a whole lot of new problems in attempting that.
Can I file the teeth off? Or simply block it off in some way - and if so how? Bearing in mind that, being a newbie, I'm a bit of a capsize queen so it will receive regular dunkings
Any ideas would be gratefully received, many thanks.
I have a jam cleat at the top of the mast on my dinghy for the main halyard - one of those 5cm long v-shaped things with sort of teeth on the sides to grip the halyard. It's a pain in the a**e when returning to shore in a wind and needing to quickly get the mainsheet down with one hand whilst holding onto the boat with the other and trying to keep it pointing into the wind as I'm removing the centreboard and getting the rudder up using my teeth and left foot! So, I've fitted another cleat at the bottom of the mast to make life easier, which is working fine. However.... the little s**t at the top of the mast still wants to be part of the action and will trap the halyard as and when it feels like it.
Removing it would be the obvious solution but it's been there so long it's become part of the mast and would entail major surgery which I'd like to avoid cos, basically, I'd have no idea where to start and am worried about causing a whole lot of new problems in attempting that.
Can I file the teeth off? Or simply block it off in some way - and if so how? Bearing in mind that, being a newbie, I'm a bit of a capsize queen so it will receive regular dunkings
Any ideas would be gratefully received, many thanks.