Mainsail halyard rerouting

[Alexis]

Hello,

I am thinking about rerouting the mainsail halyard to the cockpit, but I am not motivated by the idea of drilling through the cabin deck. I was wondering if I could use the stanchions to hold the blocks? Would they be strong enough?

[Curwen]

Alexis,

Getting ready to install the halyards aft kit on my 26D.

I need to look to see if I have access to the space between the the deck and the cabin liner. The instructions say I should.

Looking forward to other answers.

Curwen

[BOAT]

Hello,

I am thinking about rerouting the mainsail halyard to the cockpit, but I am not motivated by the idea of drilling through the cabin deck. I was wondering if I could use the stanchions to hold the blocks? Would they be strong enough?

Probably ok as long as you attached the block to the bottom of the stanchion - if you attached it to the middle it would bend the stanchion and make a tripping hazard on deck.. A nice spring block would work. Lead it to a cam lock on top of the deck. I do not think there would be too much pressure on the halyard during sail - the main deal is hauling the sail up. Once it is up most of the pressure is against the mast and not against the sail trying to push it down the mast so it should work.

Maybe Tom can to a calculation on the PSI of that halyard - seems like it puts a lot of pressure on the turn block screwed to the deck at the mast base yet I have never hear of one failing so the pressure can't be THAT great - right?

[Alexis]

Alexis,

Getting ready to install the halyards aft kit on my 26D.

I need to look to see if I have access to the space between the the deck and the cabin liner. The instructions say I should.

Looking forward to other answers.

Curwen

I forgot to precise my boat is an X. I have no idea how the liner is on a D but I am pretty sure it is not possible to access the space between the deck and the liner on an X or M...

[Alexis]

Probably ok as long as you attached the block to the bottom of the stanchion - if you attached it to the middle it would bend the stanchion and make a tripping hazard on deck.. A nice spring block would work. Lead it to a cam lock on top of the deck. I do not think there would be too much pressure on the halyard during sail - the main deal is hauling the sail up. Once it is up most of the pressure is against the mast and not against the sail trying to push it down the mast so it should work.

I was more thinking about using both stanchions (block and cleat) to clear the halyard out of the way completely. I agree on the height, it would have to be as low as possible to avoid failure. Though, I guess that the pressure question is: would the stanchion bend before the deck fails? Would it hold without even notice the load?

Maybe Tom can to a calculation on the PSI of that halyard - seems like it puts a lot of pressure on the turn block screwed to the deck at the mast base yet I have never hear of one failing so the pressure can't be THAT great - right?

@Tom: Sure, I would really appreciate this information!

[beechkingd]

I forgot to precise my boat is an X. I have no idea how the liner is on a D but I am pretty sure it is not possible to access the space between the deck and the liner on an X or M...

My BWY kit turning block at the base of the mast is mounted to the deck with large self taping screws. The other turning block in front of the hatch rail is screwed with nuts on the inside of the ceiling. I had to make an access hole behind the ceiling light above the table to put on the nuts with a holesaw. I like the idea of the plate that BWY sells for below the mast base to mount blocks on vs just screwing it to the ceiling. Previous owner had already purchased the kit but had never installed it, so I went ahead and installed it. It seems to be plenty strong.

[Alexis]

Very valuable information Beechkingd, thanks!

So, I understand that the turning block can be located right above the table light, and that the nuts would be hidden behind? It is great that Roger Macgregor did thought about little things like that...!