Adding Halyards to a SO 37

[dtamburin]

Hey all, I'm new here just purchased a Sun Odyssey 37 (2001). Can't wait till spring

My question is, can I add halyards without stepping the mast?

The boat only has the main and head sail halyards, and I'd like to add at least one for the spinnaker. All the blocks and such are there for it, it looks like to me that someone just removed the line.

It wouldnt be a problem for me to go up the mast if needed.

Thank you,
David

[MartyB]

You can do it with out unsteping the mast. Yes you will have to go up the mast, put the loose end thru the sheave at the top, then feed the new halyard, or a lighter wt tracer down thru, then fish them out thru the appropriate hole on the side of the mast that you wish to use.

The spin, hopefully you have some sort of loop at the top of the mast above the forestay. You would then attach a single sheave block to this, run the spin halyard thru the mast and down, or it could stay on the outside and down. There "may" be a hole about 2' below the masthead in the front of the mast, this would be the most logical place to run the spin halyard too.

While doing this, you may want to color code the lines, example, all of my lines that have to do with the main, are blue based, red is Jib/genoa, green is spin. Altho my jib halyards the left/port side is red, the starboard/right side is green to keep a few things different, along with ease to say green or red jib halyard too when switching ibs or equal.

Marty

[davideso37]

Marty,
Excellent advice but I will just add a couple of points. I have my 2006 SO37 mast in the back yard so I walked up the back and had a check. By 2006 the standard spinnaker outlet was on the Starboard side about 1 metre down from the masthead. In the front about 0.6 metres down there is a spare hole for a second spinnaker halyard but it does not have the stainless steel entry which is needed to protect the halyard from fraying. If the mast was never fitted with a spinnaker halyard an entry/ exit fitting may be required. These are easily fitted with a top and bottom pop rivet. The standard mast has two sheaves at the mast head for genoa halyards so as you say it should just be a process of feeding a tracer line down from the top with a narrow weight on it and then pulling the halyard down with that. One suggestion is to make sure the other halyards are pulled tight before you start feeding the line down. Hopefully this will stop the feeder line wrapping around a loose halyard.
Regards
David

[dtamburin]

Thanks. I'll let you know how it turns out in the spring after I try it