Topic: new masthead halyard sheaves
Hello Everyone,
I just read in Toss's Rigger's Apprentice book that my sheaves at the masthead need to be replaced because I changed the halyards from the steel cable/rope kind to the all rope kind. The book says that the halyards will experience excessive chafe as they are pulled into the little groove that was meant for the steel cable. Seems to make sense. So I'm shopping for new sheaves and having difficulty finding some that are the right size. The old ones are 2 5/8" outside diameter and 5/8" wide with a 3/8" diameter shaft but all I'm finding for sale at places like Defender are 2" outside diameter sheaves made of delrin, etc. And when I made a little 2" cardboard sheave to see if I could just go ahead and use a somewhat smaller sheave, it doesn't look like it will work because the rope will chafe on the track on the mast.
Has anyone faced this issue when they replaced their old halyards with all rope halyards? And if so, where did you buy 2 5/8" sheaves like the ones that you are replacing (except no groove for steel cable)?
thanks much,
Brian