Threading spinnaker halyard on BC23 BayCruiser 23

[Paul Beardsell]

Of course, the best way to thread a new spinnaker halyard through it's pulley up the mast would be to carefully abut/adjoin the end of the new halyard to the end of the old halyard and gently pull through. But if I hadn't broken the old one(*) then I wouldn't need the new one!

I enquired where I could borrow the tool that does this for one, the eyed needle end of a long pole which, with very steady hand, pushes a weighted thin line through the pulley. These enquiries were met with bemusement everywhere. One wag suggested with a big grin that I employ a drone! I even phoned a professional experienced rigger. "Lower the mast" was the consensus advice. Yes, OK, but my mast lowering accessory supplied by SY uses the spinnaker halyard! And lowering the mast is best done while not afloat generally, but also because the halyard pulley would - when at a reachable height - be well off the back of the boat - requiring me to not only lower but unstep the mast.

So, what are the gotchas with this following idea?

Tie up fore and aft on a pontoon using long springs. Standing on pontoon pull boat over on mainsail halyard allowing boat hull to move outwards, restrained by the long springs. Thread halyard pulley which is 2/3 or 3/4 up mast. Gently return boat upright. (Or refloat the boat! Although my understanding is that precious little water would even enter the cockpit. Am I correct?)

Anyone with a better idea?

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(*) I was using the spinnaker halyard as a topping lift. Bad idea! Position of pulley means it chafed thru on a very windy night.

[Rob Johnstone]

You could find a jetty somewhere with a large tidal range and wait for low tide! The first lock at Lochaber on the Caledonian canal would be just right! (Or inside the breakwater at Stonehaven).

[Nick Orchard]

Know anyone with a cherry picker??

[Sea Simon]

I have raised/lowered the mast of my BRe many times while afloat. Even mid river.
I appreciate the BC 23 is bigger/longer, but surely not by too much? Spreaders?

Not familiar but, can you not use your jib halyard to sub for your spin halyard to lower mast, then access spinni block via a tender/dinghy? No need to unstep mast?

Or, use a handy billy type setup on the bottom end of the fore stay to lower mast?

[Paul Beardsell]

I did replace the spinnaker halyard by leaning the boat over. But it was difficult and cannot be done as I planned: Pulling the boat over pulls the boat towards you so you need to tie the hull away from you, it won't slide away as I had anticipated. Even with the water ballast pumped out it took the combined efforts of three to pull the boat over on the main halyard. (This speaks well to the stability of the BC23.) I'm sure lowering the mast is a better idea, generally, and I'll try and arrange circumstances so that is more easily possible should I be faced with a similar problem in the future.