Genoa Halyard Wire Replacement

[dougcn1]

I'm replacing my halyards on a Pearson 386. I've currently got wire/double braid halyards and am inclined to switch to all rope. I've currently got 3/16" wire / 7/16" rope.

The main is easy - the position of the sheave leaves plenty of clearance as the line exists the masthead to ensure not chafe. So I'm planning to swap those sheaves out with delrin and go to an all-rope main halyard.

The genoa halyard seems to be more challenging. The genoa sheave is set back into the masthead more than the main sheaves such that the existing wire has worn a groove in the mast extending down about 3" from the exit. This seems to be the result of the halyard restainer (a metal Schaefer one) pulling the halyard straight down, rather than foward and parallel with the headstay, and the wire groove in the sheave effectively making the sheave diameter somewhat smaller for the wire than for the rope tail. The clearance between the sheave and the headstay toggle makes it impossible to increase the sheave diameter more that the current ones.

So an this point I'm debating between keeping a wire/ rope halyard or switching to rope. If I do that, I'd sand down the grooves that have been worn into the mast and switch to a delrin sheave. I'm thinking that a harken halyard restrainer might allow the halyard to exit the sheave with slightly more angle. I'm still leary of swapping because of chafe potential.

I'm guesing this is a fairly common scenario on older boats. Can you offer any suggestions?

Thanks!