Hi Greg,
If you can get your hands on a Marstrom (Tornado) halyard ring all your problems will be solved. I suffered through all that stuff and this fixed it for me.The ring is welded to the shackle so there is no slop in the connection. Hope this helps, it definitely works.
Todd

We found years ago that the best system for a "ring lock" was to, instead of having a shackle attached independently to the sail and the ring, was to take the ring and a long "D" shackle to a local welding shop and have them weld the ring directly to the top of a standard (not twist) "D" shackle, then tie off the halyard to the top of the ring so that when you pull the sail up, the ring automatically seats over the "hook" (we call it a parrots beak), and when you pull the sail up and rotate the mast to release the lock, the ring always stays at the same angle to the mast as that of the sail and it releases faultlessly every time.

I was helping with a Nacra having this problem at my last regatta and couldn't make any of the ideas expressed in this thread work. We tipped the boat on its side to see what was going on and his halyard had come off the shiv at the top of the mast. We put the halyard back on the shiv and it worked great. He purchased a new shiv to prevent the halyard from coming off again.

I have been using this sytem on my boats for the last 20 years and the suggestions in this thread always worked until this experience. It is the first time I experienced the halyard coming off the shiv.

Just one more thing to take a look at.

Sparky,

I think some of the early Nacra F18 masts (with the sloped aluminum cap at top) had a little too much width where the halyard sheave was. I too had problems with the halyard falling off to the side of the sheave until I tightened up the halyard exit with a pair of vice grips.

only time we've had problems is when we took soil samples from the bottom of whatever body of water we decided to explore.

Catch any clams?

...I could fill an aquarium.


Jake and I might have picked up a couple shrimp once <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I'm reminded of an old joke.....
If shrimp come in on shrimp boats and
Lobsters come in on Lobster boats then
what do crabs come in on???
THE CAPTAINS DINGHY

'aint no shrimp in that lake. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

Alaskan Halibut? <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />