Sailboat renovation

New halyard winch for the main mast

One thing we really wanted to do for a while is to replace the winch for the main halyard. Before it was a wire halyard fixed onto the old winch, which meant that the winch only could be used for the main halyard. That has been an issue for us when we have tried hoisting the staysail, as we have had to do that by hand and therefore not been able to get it up properly. It has also been a bit slow hoisting the main sail, as you have to use the winch all the way.

The old winch for the main halyard, which previously was made of wire. .
Wire removed, next up is to remove the winch itself.
It was not super-easy to get rid of the old winch, but finally we managed to get rid of it.
We filled the old screw holes with silicon.
Attaching the new winch and a plate for the rope clutches with pop rivets.
The new winch and rope clutches in position, first try!
The day after it was calm weather and we also tried hoisting our newly bought (second hand) main sail. The sail was perfect size for us, it just needs some adjustments of the battens and sliders before we can use it. The new winches and rope clutches worked really good as well.

We also chose to make a hole in the mast to let the halyard for the staysail and the topping lift go inside the mast instead of outside. The halyards for the main sail and the headsail are already inside the mast. As we have the mast steps it easy for ropes to get tangled around them and by being inside the mast, some parts of the halyard will get some weather protection. We made the cut in the mast as far away as possible from the other outlets for halyards to not weaken the mast too much.

After we’ve done the outlets it was time to climb up in the mast. We used a fishing line with a weight on, and when the weight was at the bottom we sewed the fishing line onto the rope. The weight and rope both gut stuck at some places but by shaking the mast a bit it managed to get down.

Enjoying the view from the top of the mast.
The topping lift, which we choose to let out at the bottom of the mast, below the attachments. Feels like this solution will be really good.
halyard winch main mast
A picture of our new solution with the new halyard winch and rope clutches on the main mast.
The new outlet for the staysail halyard.

Now we can’t wait to try sail, but a proper sail is quite far away for us. By the end of May we plan to haul out and go over the bottom, maybe we can take a short sail to the boatyard, but a longer sail will have to wait.

One Comment

  • Joel

    Can you tell me about the angle on the new mast winch? I’d imagine that it would lead to having the halyard bunch up and overlap on the mast side of the drum. But I’m probably wrong.

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