Chaffing on the Genoa Halyard

[rorr1203]

I was raising the mast and checking the lines today and found some serious chaffing on the genoa halyard. The halyard runs straight down out of the block at the top of the mast and through a “padeye” that’ s mounted about 8 inches below the block and then angles out to connect to the genoa. It’s chaffing where the line is coming out of the padeye. I don’t see the purpose of the line running through the padeye, but that’s how it was delivered.

Anyone have a similar setup? Experiencing chaffing? Suggest?

[Ron]

You can't really remove that "eye strap" that guides the genoa halyard. It's there to keep the halyard from wrapping around the fore stay when rolling in the sail. The very small angle without it will almost guarentee that it will wrap. Maybe take a dremel to it to smooth it out or wrap some sail tape very tightly around the portion of the halyard that normally sits in the eye. I usually cut down the genoa halyard aboout 1 foot each year to eliminate the problem, and I'll probably have to replace the halyard in about 2 years when it shrinks down to an unusable sixe. I'll try grinding it and adding the tape also.

I think there was a change at my hull number which caused the above to happen. Tony added a flexible link section at the top of the forestay. The resulting near 0 degree angle of the halyard and forestay would result in real problems. After talking it over, he added this eye strap. Many sailboats have this setup and the strap is the fix.