After destroying a plastic ronstan block for my jib halyard (not oem) and jamming the halyard, I decide to replace both the broken block and the remaining oem main halyard block with blocks which I fabricated myself. (After pricing stainless steel blocks)
Since the plastic obviously didn’t hold up, and the aluminum blocks all had corrosion evident, and stainless seemed mundane, I opted for titanium. I purchased the stock, some stainless sheaves and misc. hardware from the internet and proceeded to cut the cheeks from the stock with a jigsaw and high quality blades. Each block took about a day to make, in my very rudimentary little workshop.
Unlike most blocks available these days, the blocks I made can be taken apart, to replace the bronze bushings if ever needed. They are way overkill and certainly heavier than the blocks which came on the boat.
The main halyard block has three bolts in it, one more than original.
The jib halyard block was repositioned and the snarl of shackles and tangs associated with the mast pivot was reworked (again) to be hopefully a little better. The jib lead blocks were mounted on some slides I had scrounged from somewhere.
All the blocks were heat anodized.
Ix
