[Public-list] Sheave Order and Question re: Sheave Box

[J Bergquist]

Couple of observations to follow on what Andrew said:

1. Drilling with a 5/8" drill bit is not something I consider minor. If a
bit that big catches, it can really pull your arm out of joint.

2. If you think drilling and tapping 10/24 machine screws while hanging over
the end of your bow pulpit is tough, try drilling a 1/2" hole out to 5/8".
Not easy. Trust me I did a lot of both on this project.

3. Assume that the job will take 10^3 times as long as you think. I assumed
that it would take me 3 hours. It took me 3 weeks.

4. If you break your mast heel casting, you can get it repaired by a spar
dealer or rigger. I took mine to Atlantic Spars & rigging in Annapolis and
they cut off the bottom plate (keeping heel casting intact) and welded on a
brand new 3/8" piece of aluminum plate. Good as new. Cost me $100.

5. The sheave hole drilling IS a precision operation. A couple degrees of
mis-alignment will result in the sheave binding between cheek plates.

6. Yes, my cheek plates were welded in.

7. Yes, I had a 1/2" bolt running through mast, cheek plates, upper and
lower tangs. So I had to drill all of these items to 5/8". Fortunately they
were all aluminum. The tangs I was able to take home and do on a drill
press...much better than a hand drill.

8. I used 3/8" all rope halyard. Mine is 85 ft long. That's 70 ft for up and
down the mast, and an extra 15 for leading aft and for enough to splice both
ends (which I'll need to do when I end-for-end it). The rope is Yale
Vizzion, which is a blended vectran/polypropylene core and polyester cover.
It has a nice hand and splices easily. Breaking strength of 4300lbf and
4.1lbf weight per 100ft.

http://www.apsltd.com/Tree/d3000/e843.asp

Note that from this Thursday through next Monday APS has 15% off everything
in the store (boat show sale).

I went aloft on this halyard last night. Sheave appears to work great and I
love the halyard too.

In case you're curious, I went with 5/16" yale crystallyne (vectran core
7200 lbf breaking load a bit more expensive) for the jib halyard and 5/16"
vizzion for the kite halyard.

I used the better line on the jib because I figure stretch is the biggest
problem and the worst consequence on the jib.

All of my lower turnbuckles were cast parts and showed a lot of wear. I
replaced them, along with my backstay turnbuckle. Upper turnbuckles are
forged and in good shape so I kept them. All rigging terminals looked good
to me, even though nicro presses instead of swages on the upper ends of
everything make me nervous. I figure it's held up this long, probably do
fine another few years.

I also re did wiring, installed masthead combination tricolor/all around
light, fixed my spreader lights (they have never worked), installed a radar
reflector, and installed the electronic anemometer which came with my boat 4
years ago.

One final observation...if you're on the fence about the sheave thing, make
a commitment one way or the other so that people who have ordered sheaves
can get them in hand and move on with their projects. Don't make the whole
group wait if you can't make up your mind. I would have thought that the
group sheave order would have been done, shipped, and delivered by now. In
fact, I had to get my sheave shipped special because 2 weeks ago there were
a bunch of folks who wanted in on the deal at the last minute and the group
order got delayed yet again. I had mine shipped because I couldn't afford to
continue waiting. We've been working on this for a couple of months now.
Time to move it along, IMHO.

Also, MANY THANKS to Andrew for organizing this! It's not simple
co-ordinating such a large group purchase. It's a lot of work!

If you have questions about the project, feel free to ask.

Kind regards,

JB

On 10/4/06, Cole, Andrew L <andrew.cole at llff.com> wrote:
>
> Ok, here are the folks from whom I have checks so far:
>
> Boor
> Kingsland
> Bergquist
> Allen
> Irving
> Meinhold
> Grosh
> Parker
> Hicks
> Curry
> Lehman
> Lehman
> Kirk
> Katz
> Stark
> Fleury
> Bounds
> Dinwiddie
> Sutherland
> Ydel
> Helms
>
> There was a question about the sheave box/cheek plate construction in
> the last email:
>
> "I'm thinking that the problem is in the housing (pieces of flat metal
> surrounding the sheave). I probably will replace my aluminum sheave
> regardless, but it will give a little time to see how these other
> sheaves are working out for everyone. If anyone has any insight on the
> housing surrounding the sheave let me know. I think I replaced it with
> stainless steel and I think it was originally aluminum. Maybe that
> caused some corrosion that froze it up or possibly the whole assembly
> got loose or jammed together and froze it up."
>
> So far we have replaced three sheaves, two went in without drama, the
> third went in, but required minor drilling to enlarge the old hole from
> 1/2 to 5/8 from what I understand.  Both Lanny's and my masts were put
> together with a 1/2" bolt through a 5/8 outside diameter compression
> sleeve.  The bolt passed through the shroud tangs, mast wall, cheek
> plate, sheave, cheek plate, mast wall, shroud tang and then to a locking
> nut.  The cheek plates in my mast were loose, when I pulled the bolt,
> they came out.  Both were fairly light gauge aluminum, square, about the
> size of the sheave, and flared/bent at the ends where they protruded
> from the mast fore and aft.  As I understand it, J's mast had no
> compression sleeve, but had similar cheek plates, however they were
> welded in place.  I don't know whether Lanny's cheek plates were welded
> or loose.
>
> If your halyard has jumped the sheave, either the sheave was terribly
> worn, the cheek plates flexed enough to permit the wire to get over the
> side and jamb, or there was enough extra space between the sheave and
> the cheek plate to permit the halyard to jump over the side and jamb.
> If I had gone back with wire, I would have done what someone on the list
> suggested, which is to tap a machine screw through the mast wall to
> screw against the cheek plate to apply pressure, possibly on both sides.
> This seemed to be a fairly precision operation, and I probably would
> have had trouble doing it while hanging over the water at the bow of my
> boat.
>
> The new sheaves will work with either wire or rope, however going with
> rope for me obviated the need for any corrective measures, and also
> obviated the need for the aluminum plates that had previously been
> screwed the fore and aft faces of the mast to keep the wire down on the
> sheave.  I have been out twice with the rope halyard on the new sheave,
> it works like a dream so far.  I have not raced the boat in heavy air
> yet, we will see if stretch is an issue (I don't think it will be with
> the Sta-Set X, which was fairly inexpensive), however if it is, it will
> simply mean an upgraded halyard.
>
> Our sheave was fairly torn up when I removed it, and even had I closed
> down the box and put the wire halyard back on the sheave, it would only
> have been a matter of time before it was out of commission again.  I
> have the old one in the galley sink and will try to get photos for
> someone to post alongside a photo of the new sheave.
>
> There is no pressure to get in on this order, the manufacturer is going
> to build a handful of extras to keep in stock for anyone else who comes
> along.  He has agreed to sell them to us for the same price as the group
> purchase, $64 plus $12 shipping (which is still very reasonable and
> below what a local shop quoted me without shipping).  His web address,
> if you want to order one directly, is www.zephyrwerks.com and his name
> is Ed Louchard.
>
> If you have not already sent your check, please do it in time for me to
> receive it by Monday, that is when I will send the final payment to the
> manufacturer and have him ship the sheaves.  Again, you can place the
> order directly through Zephyr, it will just cost you a little more in
> shipping.
>
> Andrew
>
> Cole, Andrew L
> Admitted in Maryland, Virginia & Florida
> One Corporate Center
> 10451 Mill Run Circle, Suite 1000
> Baltimore MD 21117
>
>
> tel: 410 581-7408
> fax: (410) 581-7410
> mob: (410) 206-3577
>
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