Halyard installation

[Jon Raney]

My 54' mast is out of the boat on horses. I have replaced two of the masthead halyard sheaves which had malted and jammed when the alunimium of which they were made reacted galvanically with the SS halyard. The halyards were removed prior to my purchase of the boat and I'd now like to install new Stayset X halyards, preferably prior to re-installing mast fittings and restepping the mast, but am a little puzzeled as to the best method for doing so. Has anyone a cleaver procedure? Any suggestions and advice will be greatly appreciated. JMR

[Brion Toss]

Hello,
A local Swan owner came up with an ingenious "shuttle", a piece of plywood cut to fit snugly inside his mast, so that with all the fasteners removed he could use a messenger, on both sides, to slide it the entire length of the mast. So he took the masthead sheaves out to give him some room, slid the shuttle up to the top, and tied messengers to the appropritate corners of the shuttle, and slid it back down. The shuttle kept the halyards from tangling en route, and he just fished them out of their respective exits.
Really clever, that, and really effective. But we usually just run a couple of halyards external ó in the front, out the back ó before stepping, and then go aloft with a weighted messenger and run the halyards with the mast in. It gets a clean lead faster, as we don't have to remove and replace hardware, or make a custom shuttle for each mast.
Sparbuilders will of course have their own tricks for this, but my experience is that, whatever those tricks are, they don't always work; we've found, um interesting interweavings inside new masts.
Fair leads,
Brion Toss

Here is what I did:

6 10' lengths of 3/4" pvc from HD ($4 per length) and 5 unions glued together. You can push 1/2" staset-X into the pvc or use an electrical tape. Roll the mast so the exit/sheave are low and slide the pvc in. Once you capture the halyard at the top you can pull the pvc out and fish the other end through the exit. It was relatively easy to see where the pvc goes and it will stay straight. The fish tape will not.