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The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.
Boat is a 1999. Wing, tall mast. I think I do a good job at checking things over, but , sometimes, one needs to look Under, around and into things. So, I grab a Phillips screwdriver, and just walk around the boat on the dock. Checking this screw and then that one. Well !, a few of them were loose. After the outside was done, inside I go. Found some there, even crawled into the battery space, and found the rudder bolts loose. Now don’t get me wrong, when I purchased this boat in 2008, I checked all these bolts and screws. But over time, things work loose. Now done, I look up the mast. This is where the long story gets short. After removing the mast head top, I find 3 out of the 4 masthead sheaves have self destroyed themselves. The flanges that hold the line on are totally gone, all are cracked, 2 almost in half, all have mounting hole oversized, and the main halyard sheave mounting hole is wore oblong, and over 1/2 “ . Put this on your list to check this fall, when you take the mast down. The old phrase “ out of sight - out of mind “ is not a good one when it comes to boats.
I’ll vouch for that - today the winds were up at 15kt gusting to 20. All the powerboaters stayed in the harbor or rafted up behind the island, and all the sailors were out heeled over at 20° having a blast! Any time I see kite surfers on the beach I know that all us crackpot sailors will be out.
Dave B, it’s great that you check your boat frequently for loose or broken items. We’ve all heard the story, for want of a 10c cotter pin the rig was lost.
Indeed! Somewhere a while back I posted what mine looked like. They were a mess and ready to disintegrate but apparently hadn't found the most inopportune time to come apart!
When the sheaves start to go you must get some kind of indication - tough bending on your head sail, difficulty raising and (especially) lowering the main. A bumpy feeling as the line runs over the sheaves. The mast winch can do miracles, but somehow you gotta know things are sticky up there…
Agreed, I think it was just age and UV exposure. I didn't have any indication from raising or lowering the main. It was visual inspection during routine winter maintenance. I think mine would have just crumbled apart at an inopportune time. Here's the original post with pictures: http://www.catalina-capri-25s.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=31803
Notice: The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ. The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.