BOTH halyards stuck?

[AmzngGrace]

I recently acquired a Crealock 37. It hasn’t been sailed in several years. The running rigging is noticeably old but “intact”. I tried to raise the Jib but the halyard would not move. I then tried to go up to mast using the mainsail halyard but alas it doesn’t move either!? Is this just random or is there some mechanism that “locks” the halyards and prevents them from going up and down?
Seems pretty random to me.
Yes I tried to force them by winching without success.

[skipmac]

Yes there are mechanisms that prevent halyards from moving but unless it's something nonfunctional at the top, all of these will be within easy reach.

Assume you have looked at the obvious like horn cleats, cam cleats, stoppers, etc on one end of the halyard?

If yes to this then:

Are the halyards external or internal?

If external can you take each end of a halyard and wiggle to see it free all the way to the masthead?

[A la carte]

On my 44' Crealock, the three shives on top were frozen. Halyards would still move, but with difficulty.

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by A la carte

On my 44' Crealock, the three shives on top were frozen. Halyards would still move, but with difficulty.

Exactly. Have had frozen sheaves on a boat in the past but that didn't completely jam the halyard.

Could be the halyard jumped the sheave and is jammed in the slot between that and the mast.

[Cheechako]

Likely frozen sheaves at the top or jammed up there as noted.
I see you are in the Mount Vernon area! Me too.

[psk125]

Halyards can also jump their sheaves, making them totally jammed in the space between the sheave and the opening in the mast. This can happen when people don't keep tension on their halyards, simply letting them fly around after attaching them to the head of the sails. We had this happen to a halyard mid-Atlantic once, and the other watch (whose fault it was) had to send someone up the mast to clear it. He did not appreciate the pod of about 100 pilot whales that came alongside for about twenty minutes while he was swinging around up there. When he got down he felt like throwing up after his tethered roller-coaster ride. You may need to get up there another way to see what is actually going on, and fix it.

[Jim Cate]

Sounds like even if you can manage to get up the mast somehow (cherry picker, convenient bridge, rafting to a larger boat and using their mast to get aloft and heeling your boat to get the masthead within reach, etc) there will be some serious work aloft needed. I'd be thinking that unstepping the mast is in your near future.

Unfortunate situation, and one that needs a competent repair.

Jim

[Cheechako]

No spinnaker halyard or spare halyard to go up the mast?

[requiem]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

Sounds like even if you can manage to get up the mast somehow (cherry picker, convenient bridge, rafting to a larger boat and using their mast to get aloft and heeling your boat to get the masthead within reach, etc) there will be some serious work aloft needed. I'd be thinking that unstepping the mast is in your near future.

I'd be similarly inclined; I also wouldn't have much interest in going aloft on old rigging of unknown state. The cost to rent a cherry picker pales in comparison to the potential medical outcomes, particularly if the halyards have jumped the sheaves and are loaded over an edge.

[AmzngGrace]

I’m thinking of using two prusik knots, one on each halyard. This will split my weight by 2 and make it easier on them. I will get to the top and shift weight off each, one at a time, and fix the unloaded one before shifting over to the “fixed” one and freeing the other...

[Sailor 99]

Originally Posted by AmzngGrace

I’m thinking of using two prusik knots, one on each halyard. This will split my weight by 2 and make it easier on them. I will get to the top and shift weight off each, one at a time, and fix the unloaded one before shifting over to the “fixed” one and freeing the other...

I would rent a man lift for the weekend. 1 pm Friday till 9 am Monday 1 day price.

I would not be climbing old halyards hoping that when I got up there I could knock the whole thing off while hanging from one string.

From a safety point of view that is not on at all. No one in industry would even consider it unless they were in the 3rd world.


You fall and cripple yourself your going to wish you spent the 300 bucks.

[Benz]

Originally Posted by AmzngGrace

I’m thinking of using two prusik knots, one on each halyard. This will split my weight by 2 and make it easier on them. I will get to the top and shift weight off each, one at a time, and fix the unloaded one before shifting over to the “fixed” one and freeing the other...

If you do this, please take a long loop and put a prusik around the mast as well. It will act as a safety in the unlikely event of two halyards breaking. I once prusikked up a mast with no halyards in this way: just two prusiks on a bare pole. You can use extra turns for more friction.

[cal40john]

If both halyard pulleys are on the same axle you probably have to fix both at the same time by pulling the axle. You will have to entirely shift your weight to something other than the halyards altogether.

[zeehag]

i think i would drop mast before climbing it in its current unknown condition.. prevents death and disabilities by falls from unknown issues.
and with mast down you can fix all of its ailments which you know are many..ye donot need to find issues when at sea without recourse.. you know it will happen out there

or as mentioned above, there are specialized trucks for htis issue, also to prevent death and disability from the same falls.

[JPA Cate]

Has someone put a pair of steps so that you can work at the mast head without loading the halyards?

If not, I'll have to agree with everyone else, that just this once, you hire the cherry picker, or hire a rigger to do it for you. Have a friend who fell from the masthead on his boat, broke his back, he trusted a snap shackle, spent 6 months in a hospital in Tahiti, lucky to walk again, and the "sequelae" to the injury were a lot of pain and loss of mobility. One would expect you could slide the halyard along the sheave using the winch, so I am more inclined to think you have the halyard jammed between the side of the sheave and the inside of the mast, on both of them, and that therefore, it won't work if you have weight on the halyard. Those sheaves usually share one bolt for the axle.

And, buy a couple of folding mast steps and you or the rigger mount them where you can stand up there, and work down onto the mast head to deal with antennas, wind instruments, etc.

Ann