Adding a dedicated spin halyard(s)

[zz4gta]

I'm looking for some advice on hardware to add dedicated spin halyard. Currently I have a two sheave box that is right at forestay height and I'd like to put one just above that attached to the mast. This will help in changing spinnakers while racing, and it being above the forestay should solve any longterm chafe problems.

I've seen a setup on a C&C 115 that works well. It has a sheave box w/ two spin halyards that exit a couple feet about the forestay connection, then they travel outside the mast to two fairleads. The fairleads limit the hoist of the spin and allow the chute to articulate freely. On the C&C, it has a carbon mast and I was wondering how they attached them, or what attachments would work. I'm concerned with the fairleads pulling out of the mast. The location is too low to get to the inside of the mast (fractional) and I'd rather not through bolt if that's an option.

[Faster]

The setup you describe works really well, without the fairleads you will always be chafing the side of the halyard sheave box on a reach and eventually that will cause problems.

We did the same on a previous boat, a 24 foot frac rig. We used self tapping screws and never had an issue with it. I'd use an all-metal fairlead rather than a plastic one - The fairlead need only be a few inches below the sheave, and if you're installing the box you can decide the height of that.

On a related note, I know of another local boat that put the halyard sheave near the masthead, and put a series (2 or 3) fairleads at different heights down to just above the forestay. They then experimented with fractional, masthead and in-between kites, sending someone up to run the halyard through a different fairlead as needed. They may have ended up running two halyards with different hoists to suit.

[zz4gta]

I'd love to run an over sized masthead kite, but its not worth the 6 sec. hit in PHRF unfortunately.

Do you remember what brand fairlead you used?

[Faster]

Not sure the brand but it was one of those with a rounded inside profile, not simply a strap, to 'ease' the turn of the halyard with less chafe.

Looked like this:


You might get lucky and be able to use the halyard sheave box lower attachment points for this fitting as well.