[alberg30] Masthead sheave

[FINNUS505 at aol.com]

From: FINNUS505 at aol.com

Hi Greg,

When I took Stargazer's mast down for the first time, I found a lot I didn't
like in terms of maintainance. The worst, was that the block for the jib
halyard was secured by an undersized galvanized shackle, and the pin was
loose! The only thing that kept the pin from falling out was some badly
corroded copper seizing wire, which was on its last legs.

Getting back to your question, I was not happy with the main halyard sheave.
The aluminum retaining plates were pitted badly, and rattled, leaving
sufficient play for the main halyard to jump the sheave if the pressures were
just right.  The sheave itself was the original 1967 resin and cloth
fabrication, and was worn. The compression tube that the sheave rode on was
seized to the bolt that passes through the mast, to hold the tangs for the
upper shrouds.

The prospect of that main halyard jumping the sheave at just the wrong time
(like there's ever a right time?) didn't interest me, and I decided to change
the whole assembly. Annapolis Spars gave me a qoute for new retaining plates,
compression tube, and sheave , all anodized, for about 300 bucks.  Through the
sailing chat on AOL I learned of the Service Dept of Tartan Yachts, in Ohio.
Joe Palmer, there, quoted just over 100 bucks, delivered, for all the parts.
Instead of an aluminum sheave, he recommended the synthetic material that is
used in commercial crane sheaves. I saved the money on the anodizing because
the parts should be greased regularly and the anodizing would wear off the
contact surfaces in no time anyway.

I asked Joe to make the retaining plates twice as thick as the originals. This
required a little grinding of the slots on the mast on my part to make the
assembly fit, but I think it was worth it.
I had already decided to change from the SS main halyard to a braid one. I
never liked the fact that Whitby was too cheap to pay for a wire to rope
splice on the main halyard, but opted instead to put the eye splice and
thimble into the bitter end of the SS wire. Because the eye could not pass
through the sheave port, the snap shackle on the other end of the wire could
not reach the deck, but dangled's somewhere above the boom. On a rough, rolly
day, I was always wary of letting go of the shackle while trying to make it
fast to the head of the sail, or viceversa.  So I replaced the SS with a nice,
long, double braid halyard, one that I can fix to the deck, or use to lift
something heavy out of the water, etc. I had originaly asked Joe to make the
new sheave compatible with rope, not SS wire, and the concavity of the new
sheave working surface is somewhere in between, but all in all, I was very
happy with the assembly Joe  sent me. I sent him all the original parts, so he
would have templates to work from, rather than my inexact measurements. I
don't have Joe's number available right now, but it was an 800 #, so 800
directory assistance for Service Dept, Tartan Yacht, Ohio, should get you
through.
Good Luck,
Lee Trachtenberg
Stargazer #255

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