Have you unscrewed the masthead fitting from the mast tube? There should be enough slop in that joint to straighten things out if that's what you want. Original sheaves were metal for wire/rope halyards. Plastic sheaves are for all rope halyards. On my '76 the masthead fitting is aligned fore and aft. Also still has metal sheaves. Plastic would be better but they work ok with 1/4" rope halyards. Sent from my iPhone
On Jun 2, 2016, at 9:23 PM, John Schinnerer <john@eco-living.net> wrote:
Thanks Jerry,
I will post some pictures when I next lower the mast (probably a few days to a week). That will probably clarify a lot. It's hull #38, red gelcoat, if that helps jog your memory (just kidding! ...waaaayyy too long ago :-).
The two pairs of sheaves are parallel, side by side, and do have a thin divider between them. They appear to be nylon, or some kind of plastic, not aluminum (they're black, whatever they are).
The whole set of sheaves, in the masthead casting, is just rotated slightly counter-clockwise from a straight fore-aft line (it's cast that way, in other words). It makes sense basically, because one set of sheaves is centered fore on the mast, the other is centered aft, and the free ends of the halyards coming off the other side are out of the way of each other and of the centered sheaves.
But the counter-clockwise rotation, or offset, of the whole set of sheaves means the sheave centered on the mainsail track on aft of mast is to port at front of mast (and vice versa for front/jib sheaves). If it had been cast with a clockwise rotation, then the halyards would naturally be main to starboard and jib to port. Maybe it's some kind of southern hemisphere setup? ;-)
I also wondered if someone had done some strange modifications at some point. But there are no signs of "hacking" on the masthead - no extra or unused or re-drilled or over-drilled holes, etc.. The masthead casting will only fit that one way into the mast extrusion.
So...a mystery for now, unless anyone here can shed more light. Pictures later on (or from other early years M17s) may help.
And yeah, as Dave says, I've always seen main halyard to starboard too. It just makes sense, for reefing, right of way, etc.. That's why this was puzzling. But I can't see any way to make it otherwise...yet...I mean, without a full aluminum cutting and welding and fabrication shop!