Topic: putting a halyard winch on mast
The halyards and toppinglift on my boat (85 JJT) are lead aft to the cockpit. The reefing lines and boom vang are controlled at the mast. I find this set-up awkward when managing the main, especially when reefing. Rather than routing more lines to the the cockpit, I'd like to move the main halyard and topping lift to the mast. The topping lift is no problem as that's were it was originally - I'll just move it back to its original spot, but what about putting a winch on the mast for the halyard? There is a pad for a small winch on the aft part of the mast but I'm guessing that's for the reefing lines.
Here are some of my thoughts/questions:
Will adding a winch where there was not one before severely compromise the strength of the mast? I doubt it as the boats I grew up on had a winch or two on the side of the mast but ya never know...
How would I route the lines? Leave them to exit the foot of the mast and come up to a winch, or put a hole in the mast above the winch and come down to it?
Has anyone done this already? Are the older Co. masts set up with the halyards on the mast? If so, how are they rigged?
Does anyone remember the B.C. comic strip? I feel like that when I come on this web site with a question - I scratch the question on a stone tablet and let it slip away on the water and then wait for an answer to come back.