Hi, everyone.
Since I live on a freshwater lake, the metal parts of my blocks are still in excellent condition, but the plastic sheaves are crumbling away on many of them.
At West Marine, they sell the plastic sheave replacements, but the salesperson didn't really know how to replace them. He said that Harken and Shaeffer recommend against this, and always rivet the plastic sheaves in place. (Hmmm...I wonder why. :-))
I suppose one would have to either use a Dremel metal grinder to grind them off, or a drill to rout them out...or some such.
It seems a shame to throw away a perfectly serviceable $100 metal block just because the $5 plastic sheave wore out.
Has anyone ever done this?
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Ben Ethridge
Miami, FL
1984 MK1 Hull# 263
Ben,
What kind of blocks do you have? Based on the age of your boat, they could well be the older Seafit blocks that Catalina used before they went to Garhauer.
What we did on our boat, that had the older Garhauer blocks without ball bearings, was to upgrade a bit at a time.
The difference, for instance, in the mainsheet was spectacular.
I still have a few mast base old blocks with dying sheaves, but they are for the double line reefing lines with low loads, and will get replaced eventually.
Stu Jackson, C34IA Secretary, C34 #224, 1986, SR/FK, M25 engine, Rocna 10 (22#)
Different brands - some merriman some schaeffer some harken. I guess they've been replaced over the years.
Ben Ethridge
Miami, FL
1984 MK1 Hull# 263
I replaced mine with metal-
Haro Bayandorian, 1999 C36 MKII, Sail La Vie #1787, M35B,
Coyote Point, San Mateo, CA.
How did you replace the axles?
Ben Ethridge
Miami, FL
1984 MK1 Hull# 263
My traveler started leaking rainwater into the cabin, so it seemed like a good time to overhaul it. It is original from 1984 and the plastic sheaves were all broken due to sun exposure.
Yes, I realize I'm giving up a bit of racing advantage with the curved traveler, but being essentially a cheap bas#&*d, I did not want to spend the $800+ for a new traveler when all the metal in this one still looks perfectly serviceable (remember this is was freshwater boat most of its life).
It was not hard to ream out the riveted shafts. In fact the hardest thing was just finding new sheaves of proper size (West Marine) and new sleeves (Shell Lumber in Miami) in the sheave holes to protect the sheave from wear on the new threaded bolts going through them. I'm not totally happy with the bronze sheave sleeve in the stainless sheave (in one of the pics), but that's the best I could do thus far.
Here are pics of the results.
Ben Ethridge
Miami, FL
1984 MK1 Hull# 263
...and a pic of the finished traveler, now that it's stopped raining for a minute. :-)
Ben Ethridge
Miami, FL
1984 MK1 Hull# 263
On your traveler car you have the bolt or screw (new axle) installed from the bottom up terminating in a nylock nut.
Consider a screw or bolt long enough to have atleast 1 and as many as 3 threads protruding through the nylock nut so as to insure the nylon has engaged the screw or bolt.
Also, consider when possibe, install bolts and screws from the top where no interference will be created so if for some unforseen reason the nut did come off the bolt would not fall out too.
Take care and good luck.
Mark Kozy
"COLDWATER"
1999 C36 MK2 #1742 FK/M35B
Vallejo Yacht Club-Oldest on the West Coast
Boat lives in Marina del Rey, CA (SOCAL)
I live in Placerville, CA (NORCAL)
My thinking was that (a) I didn't want any sharp threads sticking out and (b) I wanted to be able to see the nuts in case they started working loose, but what you are saying makes a lot of sense. I think I'll change to that. Thanks for the tip!
Ben Ethridge
Miami, FL
1984 MK1 Hull# 263
I suspect I need to change the sheaves and axels on my main halyard, who here as done this and can it be done easily enough in place?
Cepheus dream
C36 MK I # 825
MK I Tech Editor No Mas
Steve,
Yes, it can be done, but no, it is not at all easy. I wrote something up a while back. I'll see if I can find it.
I just did a couple of searches on this site and the C34 site and can't find it. I THINK I wrote it up in the C34 site, but their search function is down.
The procedure involves a VERY competent helper on deck, using long lines to take the place of the forestay and back stay, taking off the forestay and back stay, supporting yourself by some means other than a bosun's chair on a halyard, and then lifting the masthead fitting up and out of the mast. Only then can you change the sheaves. I've done it, but don't have time right now to write the whole thing up again. Sorry.
Tom Sokoloski
C36/375IA Past Commodore
Noank, CT