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Next issue of the day, I noticed that my Halyard Block is now severely bent downward. Most likely an issue occurred when hoisting up the mainsail using the winch. So now I need to replace the block with something a little more high end / sturdier. So what do you all recommend. What kind of working load range should I be looking at? I noticed BWYachts sells a Harken with a working load of 350 lbs. IMO that seems a bit weak.

Maybe I’m missing something. I raise the main by hand, and I’m not able to put anywhere near 350 lbs of pull on it. Is your main so hard to raise that you have to winch it up?

Jimmyt wrote:Maybe I’m missing something. I raise the main by hand, and I’m not able to put anywhere near 350 lbs of pull on it. Is your main so hard to raise that you have to winch it up?

Remember that the rope is doing a U-turn, so 200 lb of halyard pull at your hands is also 200 lb of halyard pull on the sail for 400 lb total block load.

I was in the trucking industry for years. A simple rule we went by when purchasing a new truck was to figure out what the maximum weight we would be carrying, and then purchase a vehicle with greater capacity.

If you believe that 350 is insufficient, go for higher. I question why you need to use a winch to raise the main? It should not be that difficult.

There have been threads about how some here have had difficulty raising the main the last four or five inches. The solution for me was using the topping lift to raise the end of the boom up a few inches. The main went up much easier. I now make certain the boom is raised at an acute angle before raising the main. I have no need to use the winch.

Before I led all lines aft, I used a “truckers hitch” for those last few inches.

Ray

I use main with sail slugs and apply SailKote to sail slugs and mast groove (after washing it with cleaner) at the beginning of each season. This way I can easily raise main all the way up by hand all season long.

If you are using bolt rope consider replacing it with sail slugs.

Do the math on your loads at the head, tack, and clew.

On my 26S, I am building my outhaul for 500lbs max load (breaking point is of course higher than that).

Try this for some good leads: https://www.riggingdoctor.com/life-aboa ... ting-loads

--john

I installed a BWYachts downhaul line which caused more issues than anything else. The slug upgrade I received from them had plastic dividers on the rings themselves which created massive amounts of friction when threading a down-haul line through them. I only threaded the line through three slugs but it still created a lot of friction when pulling the main sail up. I've since then taken a razor blade and cut off the little dividers. I've attached a photo of what I'm referring too.



Thanks for the topping lift tip, I'll definitely do that the next time I raise the sail.

eodjedi wrote:I only threaded the line through three slugs but it still created a lot of friction when pulling the main sail up. I've since then taken a razor blade and cut off the little dividers. I've attached a photo of what I'm referring too.



Thanks for the topping lift tip, I'll definitely do that the next time I raise the sail.

The downhaul only needs to be attached through one point, no need to thread it through, just a 3mm / 1/8" line would do the job

check ur mast grove & make sure there,s not a dent in it causing the main sail to jam !
J