J/30 Class Association Forums J/30 Forum The Boat, Sails and Equipment Running halyards through sheave box

My sheave box has sheaves in the front for 2 jibs and a spinnaker. Behind each of them is another smaller sheave.

Do you run each halyard between the front and back sheave, or do you run them over each sheave?

ty

I ran them over both when I cleaned up the mast on Rhapsody. I believe the aft sheaves are there to help position the halyards inside the mast. If you have the spreader bar fix, make sure the halyards run on the correct side (fore/aft) so the halyards don't chaffe. It's been so long, I can't remember which it was, but you'll know if you got it wrong!

A little trick to help you get the halyards on the correct side of the spreader bar (assuming you have that fix) is to attach a length of bicycle chain to the end of the halyard before sending through the sheaves and down the mast. Then bend your mast using the backstay tensioner depending which side you're trying to go on. I don't want to talk anymore about how I know [cringe]

Happy Fishing

Ty Bill. Running it over both does seem logical. I have the mast down and sheave box out, so that's easy.

However... if you were trying to feed a halyard with the mast up, it would seem a bit difficult to get the bicycle chain over the aft sheave. There's probably a riggers trick to do that.

I was able to get a tracing line with bike chain over the second sheave with a little help from a bent coat hangar, this was for my main halyard.

Thanks. I won't ask how you managed to get up to the masthead in order to run that halyard.