I am having difficulties raising and lowering the spin on my N20. I am thinking the problem may be somewhere in the routing of the halyard. Right now the halyard goes up the mast and BEHIND the shrounds and trap lines under the bale, through the block back under the bale and to the snuffer. Is this correct or should the halyard run in front of the shrouds on its way up the mast? It requires a lot of effort to both hoist and douse the spin. Any ideas?

It goes up in front of the shrouds.

Karl,

We run ours first behind the diamond wires (this is a bit of a compromise) then up through the opening formed by the spreaders, then just underneath the trap wires and shrouds such that the halyard will rest in the corner of the mast hound just under the shackles. When you do this, however, you need to make sure that the main stay shackle can't slide from side to side and pinch the halyard.

On my F18, I put a small stainless eyebolt through the hound nearest the mast and just between the trapeze and the main stay holes. I run the halyard through there and it's worked terrifically. The blue N20 has a special sheave mounted up high (I didn't do this bit) that the halyard runs through to keep it clear of all the rigging....pictures...I know. I'll try to get some.

Check all the blocks on your spin halyard system really carefully. I've seen quite a few failures where for what ever reason the center of the sheeve gave way, it stopped turning and the halyard sawed through the sheeve material.

I had been whining at my crew about how slowly they were setting and dousing - but it was the bad block - not them (as I found out when I tried to set and douse myself).

The best routing for your halyard will vary depending on where you have the cleat. Running up the front of the mast with a small piece of line tied between the spreaders to act as a guide can work well.

Chris

I was bitching and complaining once upon a time that the halyard was a bitch to hoist. After I convinced Trey that it wasn't just my pussy-ness, he found out that the sheeve at the top was binding at some point. Just check it

I use a Harken wire bullet block up top and because of it's high load capacity have not had any problems over 3 years.

Bob <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />
Nacra F17

If you run yur halyard behind shrouds , the mast will trap the halyard when it rotates , if its infront it can,t get trapped , simple .

It goes in front of shrounds as Simon says .

Unless you constrain your halyard in the nook at the mast hound as I indicated. My halyards do not get pinched and remain more constrained. I'll try to take a picture tonight.

All the blocks on the halyard are new so I do not think that is were the problem lies. I will first try routing the the halyard in front of the shrouds and see if that helps. Thanks all for your suggestions.

Jake, I'd still like to see the pix of your fix.....

I put this little tube on the tang and run the spin halyard threw it. The tube is held on with a small screw taped into the tube and glued on.

As a matter of fact, that WAS a WWDLD! I did exactly what David shows but instead of the tube, I drilled a small hole in the hound and put a small stainless eye bolt in the same position for the halyard.

Our unimaran had a simple closed eye welded to the hound.

Found this eye bolt available in 6mm (rather large) at a UK chandlery. Imagine APS will have something similar.


Since there's no "load" that tube could be glued on? What is the source for the tube?

That's huge. I got mine from a standard hardware store. It's 316 Stainless and has about a #8 thread.

Since this is a pretty low-stress item that isn't mission-critical, couldn't you use something a little less.... heavy?

Maybe a plastic/delrin equivalent?

I used a short piece of stiff plastic (HDPE) tube attached to the top of the sidestay between the mast and stay. Temporary (used duct tape around tube/stay), but it did keep the halyard from being pinched when the mast was at full rotation on the other tack/gybe.

If you've got a block attached to your spin bale on the mast, that may be getting flipped or pinned as well (especially if your halyard is slack when spin is in snuffer), making hoisting very difficult.

Picture angle is funny because my mast is currently hung on the side of a fence (while my trailer was in use for doublestacking N20s). Here's the F18 pics with the eye bolt - it doesn't obscure or obstruct or even touch any of the rigging.

Thanks Jake. My first move is going to be to try routing the halyard in front of the rigging. If that does not solve the problem, I'll try adding the eyebolt. I'm glad I am not the only one out there strugggling with this issue.

It is an issue, although I wouldn't consider it a struggle. Only problem I ever had (before I put the tube up there) was when I was dousing it on the wrong tack with the mast rotator all the way out.

Since I'm driving the boat, to me it's an issue, but if you ask my crew....she'll call it a struggle!