Reeving Genoa Halyard

[sparta]

Having foolishly pulled the genoa halyard completely out of the mast of my 22ft Sparta, a crewman on the forecastle of large vessel in harbour very kindly managed to thread a weighted line through the sheave back into my mast for me in order for me to attach it to the halyard and pull it back through. I thought that that was the difficult part! I had imagined that I would then be able to see the weighted line behind the pulley at the bottom of the mast and then hook it with a piece of wire. Unfortunately that hasn't been the case.

At the foot of the mast just above the pulley where the halyard would exit there appears to be a plate through which the halyard would pass. This, I think, is stopping the weighted line from dropping the last few centimetres to the bottom. I managed to manouvre a long piece of hooked wire through the plate and into the mast cavity but cannot for the life of me manage to find the weighted line. I know that it should be there because the length of line was more than enough for the mast height - unless it snagged on something on the way down.

There is a s/s collar at the bottom of the mast just above the pulleys and removal of this may give access to the interior of the mast - I'm only guessing here - but the screws just won't budge. It may be that they are completely seized to the mast (not surprising after 30 odd years) or they may in fact be the heads of bolts and cannot be moved without lowering the mast and loosing the nuts on the inside.

What should I be doing? Any advice welcome.

 

[dickh]

I'm not familiar with your boat but do you have a class association or the manufacturer of the boat or mast help? It is likely someone else has had this problem.
Another thought, assuming that you cannot do it with any suggestions from here, try removing the mast, inverting it and threading through from the heel?

 

[jhughes]

Can you push a fish tape (steel coil used by electricians to install cables into ducting) up from the bottom sheave to the top of the mast?

 

[sparta]

The Sparta came from the same builder as the Achilles and is very similar although 2ft shorter. They were built in the mid seventies. I don't think that there are sufficient numbers to warrant a class association. I've only come across three others in internet searchs in recent years although if any other owners are reading this I'd love to hear from them!

I've thought about taking the mast down but this means taking the boat out of the water which I'm trying to avoid. Thanks for the suggestion, however. I may need to resort to it yet!

 

[orizaba]

i always use a lenght of bicycle chain,its quite heavy and slips between other ropes etc, also tends to bunch up at the bottom of the mast to give you something to hook to

 

[sparta]

Thanks for the suggestions. The bicycle chain would be too big to pass through the sheave as the rig is comparitively small. In fact I used a beaded chain from a washhand basin - perhaps that was too light. The electrician's fish is an interesting idea. Although I may have to improvise on that as well as the cable needs to pass over the pulley and then take an almost verticial turn through the plate above. Screwfix have a "drawtape" in their catalogue which might do the trick.