I was looking at the running rigging on the main mast, today, and found something puzzling. There is a wire-to-rope line, like a halyard, that exits the front of the mast about 6 feet below the top of the mast. Then, it attaches to a bale on the mast, about a foot above where it exits the mast; however, it also has a block mounted to it.
It looks to me like maybe the block is intended to be attached someplace on deck, and this might be a some sort of removable inner fore stay, or something like that, but I don't see anyplace to attach the block on the fore deck. I don't remember seeing this when the mast was up.
Any idea what this is?
Thanks,
Jeff
"Jabberwocky" P-365 #269
Jeff,
Anything that exits below the of the masthead could only be a halyard for a stay sail or a topping lift for a spinnaker pole. The fact that it is a wire to rope does indeed indicate it was intended to be heavily loaded so it was probably a halyard.
Dale
Obersheimers
Maruska #40
It looks like I might have an answer. I originally got the answer from a neighbor who reads a lot about older boats, and then the suggestion was made on the Pearson Google group as well.
It looks like this is a rig for a solent stay. This would allow me to attach a stay to the deck and hoist it inside the head sail (back about 1 - 2 feet from the head sail) for the purpose of attaching a storm sail or a second down wind sail. This would not be a cutter because there isn't enough room between the two stays and the stay is removable.
I'm not going to worry about it this season, but next winter I may try to find a used sail that I can sew a dyneema line into, so I can hoist it for this purpose.
its a topping lift for the main
cheers