Broken Mainsail Sheet Pin

[Sailfast-NJ]

I thought I lashed the Durn Thing down!
During a recent Tstorm the pin on my mainsail sheet sheared/came loose & the jumping wire ran up the mast.

Has anybody winched themselves up? Will the sheeves hold a 200+# guy?

The jib sheet jumping wire is 1/8 wire, but its old like the MS sheet was.
Could I jury rig the main using it to get to a local Marina w/sheerlegs?

[Mike Goodwin]

You mean the halyard came off the sheeve in the masthead ?
Yes you can go up the mast by the jib halyard, but I send my 105 lb wife or a kid up if I can , whoever is at the bottom of the mast need to be as big as the one going up .
You could drop the mast with sheerlegs if you are a good enough rigger.
You could also lay an aluminum ladder against the front of the mast, which may be a lot safer considering your rig may be failing . tie the ladder off well so it wont slip, a 28' ladder will do.

[Sailfast-NJ]

Hi Mike;

Thanks for the answering post! The sheet didn't come off the sheeve, I had the sheet pulled to the mast utility chock with the end tied off on the sheet's line, the wire to the sheet hardware came unpinned in the wind and the wire ran up but didn't come through the sheeve.

Since I also had other issues with the mast I had a local yard with a very good reputation (David Beaton, Manaloking, NJ) deal with the whole list.

Thanks again!

Joe Herbert/JrzyGirl, Silver Bay, NJ/Hull #67

[Mike Goodwin]

The sheet is on the end of the boom , the halyard ( from' haul yard ' in the days of square rig ) goes up and down the mast . ( usually taking the sail with it )
You call the halyard a sheet in some yards and they gonna rip you off , figuring you dont know squat .
Some folks ( even on this list ) call all the wire holding the mast up, "stays" . There are 8 wires that hold the mast in place and only 2 are stays on an Ariel , the forestay and the backstay , all the rest are shrouds to the sides of the boat.

[Gravey]

Not sure about the above terminology, but I'm guessing the boom topping lift is what ended up at the mast head. I agree that the person going up in the boatswain's chair should be of less mass than the one on deck, who should also know exactly what he's doing on the winch--especially on the way down!