Dave
If you are redoing the downhaul, take the mast base off and pull the whole thing down and out of the mast, it makes it much eaier to replace the line, the base is only held on by two screws, it will need a bit of coaxing, a couple of light taps with the hammer works.

Also, replace the exit blocks at the base of the mast with Harken wire exit blocks, the one that came with the boat are not up to the task, the crunching noise you hear when you really pull on the downhaul is the bearings in those exit blocks. The Harken wire exit blocks work great and fit right into those holes in the mast.

And if your downhaul isnt 16 to 1, make it 16 to by adding more blocks either on the inside or outside. You should be able to really depower the main with the downhaul, on the HT the downhaul is almost as good as the main to depower, but to get it to work right the blocks need to be working good, with no twist and no crappy exit blocks.


Bill