Jammed mizzen halyard

[Houtrib]

My fg H28 had not been used for several years because of Covid. On the first outing after anti fouling the mizzen halyard was found to be jammed down. I did not like the thought of going up the mast on the one remaining line ( staysail halyard) so I rigged up a spray can on a 6 m pine pole, using duct tape, with a loop of venetian blinds cord running over the spray head. The cord was routed through a couple of short lengths of pcv tube, again duct taped in place.I lashed the head of the pole loosely to the halyard, and slid it up to the mast head. After three attempts with minor readjustments, I was able to spray the mast head sheave and wire halyard. 20 minutes later it freed with a gentle pull. This post is made as one possible approach to a difficult (dangerous) issue.

[psk125]

Might be time to replace the halyard with synthetic line, too. The wire may be damaging the sheave.

[tkeithlu]

Ditto. Ingenious solution to the immediate problem, but it leaves unsolved the problem that the halyard jammed in the first place. It sounds as if the wire did not jump the sheave and jam beside it, because the solution would not have worked in that case. If the wire has dug a track in the sheave, and then jammed in that, it's likely to jam again when you next tighten the halyard, or soon after the oil evaporates. In any case, I'm guessing that you still have a repair to do at the top of the mast.

I suspect that it is time to figure out a safe way to get up there. Good luck with it.

[Bill O]

^^^^^ this.

Need to go up to inspect the mast head and determine what is the problem.

Do you have a secondary halyard (mizzen staysl) to get up to the mast head. We go up the mizzen mast often and is not a big deal nor dangerous with the proper help manning the winches.

[psk125]

Mizzen on a H-28 can be a spindly thing...

[Idaho]

Pull the mizzen mast and make the repair on sawhorses, or workbench. Repair everything else on it that needs attention and refinish, if needed.

Always, Safety First.

[Bill O]

Originally Posted by psk125

Mizzen on a H-28 can be a spindly thing...

Could be, but easily should hold one's weight to do a quick inspection.

[cal40john]

What's the height and weight of the mizzen mast?
I used to raise the mast on my Hobie 20 by myself, 31 feet long, 50 lbs.

[Don C L]

My guess is it’s a phenolic sheave and the wire halyard did jam between sheave and box. Do you know if these sheaves are grooved for both wire and rope? If so a change to rope would be good one imo.
Ingenious solution you have though!

[Houtrib]

Thanks for all the suggestions. Now I have two lines to the masthead I can go up and have a look ( one hoisting, other one safety). Mast is 7.5 m from cockpit well. Halyard is 4 mm s/s with a rope tail. Working the halyard up and down gives no evidence of a jumped or irregular sheave but we will see. The Walker H28 is a 5 tonne Australian version of the Herreshoff and more heavily built and rigged than the original. A heavy comfortable cruiser, wIth headroom. Not so good to windward or but sails well down or across wind.