Now if I could only hoist the main without getting the halyard caught on all those over sized bolts on the mast along the way up
I think if I cut off the excess, that might help.
I'm going from memory here but if your mast is like mine there is a strap that the halyard goes through. The line coming from the head of the mast goes through the eye in the srtap, through the pulley at the top and then down to the base of the mast. There's a bolt that I think holds the assembly with the rotating spreaders and tangs for the lower shrouds. I think you're better off if the head of this bolt is towards the halyard run that goes to the head of the sail. The halyard can still get hung up on even the bolt head but I think it's much less likely than if the nut were there. No need to cut off any excess if it's the first way because you can always pull the halyard away from the mast on the nut side whereas on the other side the strap eye prevents that.
Dimitri-2000X-Tampa wrote:On my X boat, those oversized spreader bolts put a hole in my mainsail. I patched the sail, cut off the bolt tails, and then taped up what was left.
The 26X and 26M both came with 1/4" x 2" hex-head spreader bolts, which left about 1/2" of thread exposed.
I now use 1/4" x 1-1/2" . Others use pins.
On the 26M mast, I recommend cutting off the exposed 3/8" thread that can shred halyards, and make it difficult to roll the mast aft/forward on the mast-carrier roller.
