Work on the mast

December 28, 2010

I got a new windvane for Christmas so I have to mount that on the mast head. I also hope to get a radio and mount the antenna on the mast head. So I have to figure out where everything is going to go.
I took a shot of the mast head so that I know what I'm working with.

You can see that there is a mount for a windvane already there (or there was, I've now removed it.) That bracket is on the front of the mast. It would be better to put the windvane on the back side of the mast. I think I can mount it on the bracket that holds the backstay. I just don't want to drill into that and risk compromising its strength.

May 29, 2011

May 30, 2011

Today I was working on replacing the main halyard with the old one. The one that was installed (you can see in the photo) is new, however it is too large. The previous owner gave me the old halyard which is not in bad shape (just the end was frayed) so I'm putting it back in. In the process, I think I notice that there is a problem with the masthead sheave. It seems too small. So I removed it and indeed its worse than that. Its almost completely eaten up by abrasion. So I'm looking for a new one and not sailing until I can get this replaced.