Flag halyard replacement

Finally got my flag halyard up. (What a pain, but more on that later...)

I was under the impression that I could use it to raise a radar reflector when needed but quickly realized that the edges of the reflector (Davis Echomaster) would probably quickly chafe through the part of the halyard that passes across them.

I looked up the Echomaster reflector on Defender and they mention a "mounting system":

"Includes mounting system to hang echomaster from a mast, spreader or rigging."

What kind of mounting system are they talking about? How do others rig the Davis Echomaster?

I don't want to risk ruining the halyard I just managed to reinstall...

About actually getting the halyard up:

I got a friend of mine, Kathy, who is about 5' 2" and weighs probably 100 lbs to go up in a bosun's chair to attach the halyard, thinking it would be easy to hoist her up. Wrong. There has to be an easier way to get someone up there than using the 1:1 purchase of the masthead sheave. My main halyard is led back to the cockpit, so there is a turning block and a deck organizer at the base of the mast that introduce additional friction.

I was thinking it would be possible to remove and use the boom vang blocks and have a 4:1 purchase. One block could be attached to the main halyard and raised to the top of the mast; the other attached to the bosun's chair. The jib halyard could still be used as a safety line. I know the tackle would take about 200 ft of line to reach from the top of the mast to the deck, but if I used three-strand it could do double duty as anchor rode. Any thoughts?

The Davis mounting system uses a three point permanent mount. It requires that someone spend some time aloft.
Plan B, if you want to call it that, is to always put two small blocks on the bottom of the spreader when you rig for a flag halyard. The outer one is where the actual flag (or whatever) will be hoisted to. The halyard then goes horizontal to the inner block (about 18" inward) and thence down the to shroud cleat.
This also keeps the flag(s) from snarling and twisting the two parts of the halyard when in use.
We did that when our spar was down for the re-rig. Works great.

Chafing on the edges of the Davis alum. reflectors is always going to be somewhat of the problem. Another E owner in our club made a permanent mounting that goes on a short post on the radar post that is on his transom. His Davis reflector is well above the beam, and mounted in the correct "catch rain" position.

Best,
Loren

mherrcat said:

Finally got my flag halyard up. (What a pain, but more on that later...)

I was under the impression that I could use it to raise a radar reflector when needed but quickly realized that the edges of the reflector (Davis Echomaster) would probably quickly chafe through the part of the halyard that passes across them.

I looked up the Echomaster reflector on Defender and they mention a "mounting system":

"Includes mounting system to hang echomaster from a mast, spreader or rigging."

What kind of mounting system are they talking about? How do others rig the Davis Echomaster?

Click to expand...

Our mounting for our reflector was something like what Loren mentioned. We had two small blocks on the underside of each lower spreader, one centered, and the other outboard. You could then hoist a flag or a reflector up the middle to just under the center block with the return line outboard where it would not chafe on the flag/reflector. It worked great, but it still allowed the reflector to rotate, so I also ran about a six inch long tether from the inboard corner of the reflector to the top of one of the lower shrouds that kept the reflector from rotating. I would just tie the tether to the shroud at deck level, and then hoist the reflector aloft allowing the tether to travel up the shroud as it went. Highly recommended.