Halyard Stuck in mast

[donradcliffe]

I'd start by taking out the steaming and deck lights and the topping lift exit block. Look through their holes with the scope to locate the problem.

Another thought would be to tension the remaining lines super tight, so the only thing lying on the bottom of the mast section is the broken halyard, then fishing from the top with aa fish tape a hook.

[wackerb]

It seems to me that even if you hook it from the top you may not get enough of a grip to pull it out of the tangle it has created. I'd go with the pipe sleeve from the bottom where you can push against the obstruction and get a little slack to pull out and repeat.

BTW, I had chafing problem at the top and lost a couple of halyards down my mast. The first thing to do is get it out to avoid the problem you have. I've had to use the electric winch to pull it sometimes even right after the break. All your electric cables should be in a separate conduit so pulling hard "shouldn't" beak anything important.

[CaptNemoO2]

I lost the halyard for my furling main this fall (5 minutes after crossing the finish line of a race). When running the messenger down the mast, it got difficult to pull down. It actually turned out to get wedged between another halyard and the mast close to the exit. The exits are several feet over head on my mast so i couldn't see it. I slacked the other halyards and I was able to get the messenger out. That's a quick check to try.

[Montanan]

It sounds like the halyard fell down the mast by gravity action. Since the mast has been stepped, can you invert the mast so that the top becomes the bottom and try shaking it so that the halyard will possibly fall out the top? If it will not come down perhaps it will fall up. Of issue is that if you pulled the halyard partway down by yanking from the bottom, you don't have something to pull it back from the top and one can't push on a rope from the bottom.

"The inside of the mast has five other lines running down inside it and a tube containing the mast wiring. On the mast there is only a radar dome. My most pessimistic thought was that the halyard had fallen down around both sides of the spreader compression tube and a loop snagged on a rivet/screw." With five other lines and a mainsail halyard bungled up inside and a wiring tube there are lots of entanglement potential [plus the radar mount fasteners and the spread hardware, yikes.

I suspect the spreader needs to be removed as the halyard is probably a tangled pile on top of the spreader or on both sides and perhaps you can then see the halyard, hook it remove it from the spreader opening.


The electrician snake concept aided by viewing with a scope that can reach the entire length of the mast. I was looking on the web to see if I could locate a long flexible grabber tool that has be compressible claw on the end, but only came up with ones that are 6 feet or shorter. Reference attached picture.

[Montanan]

Reference the link below for a company with scopes and foreign object retrieval tools. They can be purchased or rented. Good luck.

I stepped my mast three days ago and found a dead swallow inside it. I suspect it entered in the top and could not make its way back up.

Foreign Object Retrieval Tools