I have been reading a few posts about rigging for solo sailing and I have a question about halyards. My whole life, I have only ever sailed boats that had cleats on the mast for the halyards. These were all mostly boats length 22' or less.
If you are going to rig your halyards to be reachable from the cockpit to make reefing easier, I assume you have to put halyard lead blocks on the deck at the base of the mast, then run the line to some kind of cam cleat or other device on the cuddy deck, correct?
Is their anything else that needs to be done to the mast for this? Does tensioning to the deck alter the forces on the mast in any way? Does a mast with a tabernacle hinge affect the ability to do this? Should I put a backing plate under the cuddy deck to spread the load out on the fiberglass?
One of my goals getting the Daysailer is to practice rigging and sailing solo as I would on a larger boat: topping lift, fairleads, etc. But, I don't want to risk damaging the boat doing this.