mast rotation problem

The end of the season, almost and had a great summer on my 16, took it camping with the kids and love it, nothing broke BUT.... my mast seems to be a bit bent above the shrouds and when I tension up the rig it seems to bend off just one way and (heres the problem) it wants to rotate one way but not the other. Not sure if this is to do with the bend though this is above the stays or something else. Could it be that I tie the jib halyard down to the cleat on one side? I tried balancing it by tieing another line from the other cleat on the opposite side of the mast but I did this on the water without taking the tension off and it didnt seem to centre the halyard. Anyway has anyone had experience of this and know how to get my mast to rotate freely? Have tried reducing rig tension, doesnt seem to help, maybe some, anyway any ideas??

You're exactly right, that bend in the upper part of the mast is from jib halyard tension in conjunction to the cheek block being on the side of the mast. The newer boats have the "Aussie" halyard, which locates all the blocks between the top of the jib and the hounds, eliminating the sideways stress.

You can try what you did again except, skip using the cheek block on the side of the mast. Keep the wire part of the halyard, and block, centered, in front of the mast. Run the bitter end through the center of the horn cleat on one side, then up through the halyard block and down through the center of the horn cleat on the opposite side of the mast. Tension the rig and tie off the halyard. This will keep the wire portion of the halyard centered, down the front of the mast. Same purchase power with different routing of the halyard line.

One drawback is now the halyard is more of an interference with the jib battens when tacking, and will abraid the batten pockets quicker. Take out the battens and trim the length to "just long enough to apply tension" (cut a small amount off first and test...too short sucks) Can also sew on a "flap" of window material to each side of pocket ends to protect them.

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Thank you J. I will try that next time

Yep that worked much better, sailed yesterday in light airs and the mast rotated both ways fine.