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Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums

Catalina 25 Specific Forum

Dropping Main and Masthead Divider Plate

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monty0
1st Mate

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USA
51 Posts

Initially Posted - 04/05/2008 : 13:55:17

Greetings,

We need suggestions on what we can do to make dropping our main more smooth and effortless?

We are working on our masthead to ease the process of getting our mainsail down. Last season, our first season with our Standard Rig Catalina 25, we found we had to do a fair amount of tugging to get the mainsail down.

We've disassembled the masthead halyards, sheaves, and masthead divider plate. We find that our masthead divider plate is not a comparable shape to the one shown on the Catalina Direct site. Here is ours:

And here is the CD masthead divider plate.

With ours, the bolts for both sheaves (pulley wheels) pass through the plate: on the other hand,for the CD plate it seems that only the fore sheave bolt passes through the fore sheaves. Does anyone know how CD Masthead divider plate interfaces with aft sheave -- (i.e.resting on or under bolt?). We're wondering if we can just make our own masthead divider plate. The one we have is made of plexiglas; is that a suitable material for this plate or would you recommend some other material? Does anyone have the dimension/angles of the masthead plate ?

Any suggestions on other work can we do to help make dropping the mainsail safe and easy?

Monty

1977 Catalina 25 #66 SRSK "Prana"

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Steve Milby
Past Commodore

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USA
5909 Posts

Response Posted - 04/05/2008 : 14:04:06

Are your halliards part wire and part rope, or are they all rope?

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monty0
1st Mate

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USA
51 Posts

Response Posted - 04/05/2008 : 14:12:38

Halyards are part wire and part rope. Good point, I meant to include that info.

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Dave5041
Former Mainsheet Editor

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USA
3758 Posts

Response Posted - 04/05/2008 : 23:20:45

I just replaced my masthead sheaves and converted to all line today, so I've had a fresh review. My standard spacer has both clevis pins, not bolts going through through the aluminum plate. I didn't measure it, but it appearer to be about 1/8" - 3/16" thick. It really just separates the sheaves and is under no real load, so I don't see why you couldn't make one out of a hard aluminum alloy. You probably already have, but be sure the sheaves spin freely when installed and clean and lubricate (I use SailKote) the mast slot so the slides move freely.

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dlucier
Master Marine Consultant

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Virgin Islands (United Kingdom)
7583 Posts

Response Posted - 04/06/2008 : 07:09:16

Monty,

You can easily check how freewheeling your masthead sheaves are by simply grabbing the halyard, one end in each hand, and seesawing back and forth. If the motion is smooth and effortless, it's not your masthead sheaves.

How are your sail slugs? That's if you have them...

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Steve Milby
Past Commodore

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USA
5909 Posts

Response Posted - 04/06/2008 : 07:51:55

The system for raising the mainsail is pretty simple, and there's not too much that can go too wrong. One possible problem is if the divider plate is too thin, and it allows too much space between the sheave and the plate. If so, the wire halliard can jump out of the sheave and get caught between the sheave and the divider plate. When that happened to mine, I cut some disks the size of the sheave out of a plastic yard sign, and inserted them between the sheave and the plate. That occupied some of the space, so that the wire halliard couldn't jump off the sheave. But, the better way to deal with it is to replace the wire halliards with all-rope halliards, and replace the sheaves. The halliards are easier to replace when necessary, and more foolproof, and it's not a very expensive alteration.

But, the most likely reason why your mainsail is hard to raise and lower is because the mast slot is dirty, and needs to be cleaned and lubricated. It is especially a problem if you sail in salt water, because salt residue can cake inside the mast track, preventing the slides from moving smoothly. You can clean the track by using the main halliard to pull an appropriately sized piece of line, coated with dish detergent, up the track. Then pull the line out and rinse the track with a hose. Then spray the track liberally from top to bottom with a good lubricant such as Sailkote.

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Dave5041
Former Mainsheet Editor

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USA
3758 Posts

Response Posted - 04/06/2008 : 21:37:31

During the season, I spray SailKote as high as I can reach while standing on the boom. Then I tie a rolled cloth to the halyard, soak it with SailKote and run it up and down with the help of a recovery line that is permanently attached to the end of the halyard.

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stampeder
Master Marine Consultant

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1608 Posts

Response Posted - 04/07/2008 : 16:05:45

Monty

I have wire to rope halyards, and what I believe are the original sheeves. IMHO - the probem of getting your main sail down is more likely the mast slot than the sheeves.
If the sheeves are seized, the mainsail should still come down reasonably well, and you should be able to hear the wire part of the halyard 'whinning' when it went comes over the jammed sheeves. That's how I knew one of mine was jammed. (moreso than resistance when hauling on the halyard)
My experience re problems with getting the main down,is with dirt and crud in the mast track along with crappy sail slugs. We get a lot of dusty wind, so whenever I get the chance, I clean out the mast track. Also, I changed from all plastic slugs to wire and plastic slugs. These make a huge difference because the part of the slug that exits the mast slot is very skinny, and they are a lot stronger than the all plastic slugs.

These slugs came from Pride Marine in Toronto. They are expensive ($7 each) but I think they are well worth the money because they make a night and day difference in raising and lowering the main.
I also have some of these, which are far better than all plastic.

These white slugs have wire embedded into the plastic and are about $3 each. A good choice, just not as good as the dark ones.
I haven't tried Sailkote, but I have used bio-soap in the mast track with excellent results.

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Notice: The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.