My cutter-rigged
boat has a Selden
mast. I have main,
genoa and staysail halyards which run up through the inside of the
mast and come out through sheave boxes. I have only one more
halyard -- a
spinnaker halyard which goes up out of the mast and through a block hung from the masthead crane.
I guess I have the minimum number of halyards. The
spinnaker halyard can be used as a spare for the
genoa halyard and probably (awkwardly) for the main halyard. I can use the staysail sheet for a spinnaker pole topping
lift (it goes up over a block at the level of the first spreaders -- probably rigged that way especially so it can double as a topping
lift.
But to climb the mast, I have to strike the yankee down on
deck in order to use the genoa halyard as a
safety line. A PITA. And I thought one more halyard wouldn't hurt anything anyway.
So I'm thinking about hanging one more block from the masthead crane and
rigging another halyard there. It would be like a spare spinnaker halyard but could be used for other purposes, especially, mast-climbing.
I have a few questions, however:
1. How do I install another exit sheave? Do I just hack a hole in the mast (yikes!) and screw it in? Or does the mast need to come down for this? I don't quite see how I can get my hand inside the mast to hold the nuts, and I can't imagine that the metal crumbs from the jigsaw (what I imagine I would use) can do anything beneficial inside the mast.
2. Or do I just leave the halyard outside of the mast? Lot of windage with two runs of
rope up to the masthead 75 feet above the
water.
3. Is this the best place for another halyard? Will it tangle with the other spinnaker halyard? Or should I rig one maybe on the aft side of the mast, to serve as a better spare for the main halyard (and at the same time -- a good halyard for a storm trysail)?
4. Or do I already have enough halyards and better forget this cockamamie scheme?
Any tips?