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Many sailboat manufacturers supply their boats with plastic sheaves at the masthead for both mainsail and jib sail halyards. These plastic sheaves always wear out eventually and the edges start to chip away. The photo on the right above shows one of my original halyard sheaves after about fifteen years of use. Snickerdoodle has four of these sheaves at the top of the mast for the halyards. My first notice that there was a problem was when I had great difficulty trying to raise my jib sail one day. The halyard had "jumped" off of the sheave and was jammed between the side of the sheave and the mast cap fitting.
My solution was to have new bronze sheaves made by a machine shop to the same dimensions as the original sheaves (picture on the left above). I believe that the bronze sheaves will probably outlast anything else on Snickerdoodle.
When was the last time you took a good look at your halyard sheaves? If they are plastic like mine were, it might be time now as part of your winter layup.
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