Commander 147

[ebb]

Jerry,
Nice gooseneck fitting!!!

No, by radius I meant on the flat of the plates.
So that when you look at them in the mast slot they would project out from the mast in a curve.
They would in effect be long cheeks for your sheeves. Top and bottom of curve would begin and end at mast.

So if they were welded up into a sleeve as ebb has done they would slip thru without a problem.

Of course the problem may be in how wide the sheeves are
and how wide the sleeve has to be to accomodate them.

My sleeve-box is at the welders right now, so I can't ckeck on it's actual width.
Got a new sheeve that is 5/8' thick delrin. It is 6 5/8"D which matches the sleeve dimension. The groove is made to cradle 1/2" line.
If I get it right the halyard will not run afoul of any hard edges up there. We'll see!

The aluminum sleeve I believe is a skoch wider than 7/8".
The original slot in the mast is between 5/8" and 3/4" depending on where you put the tape.
Widening that slot that much doesn't seem to be too radical.
Altho I will admit the original slot itself is an engineering problem.
Mast showed a little enlargement of bolt holes. Have found a bolt with a smooth shank long enough so no
thread bears on the holes. May have to add a couple bushings to the mast walls later.

Argument is that the welded sleeve adds some structure to the slot if the slip is tight all round.
The thru-bolt gets support in four places: mast wall & sleeve.

With welded top and bottom, the sleeve can be fastened to the mast with clips if thought necessary.
It's removable and helps keep rain and mud swallows out of mast.