Roger,

I just uploaded a picture of a system that I just made for another boat. This will give you 12:1 purchase on the tensioner and allow you to still pull the halyard up the way you currently do.

The blue line would be your current halyard. All the read line is the tensioning system. Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks, Jason

:: Can any on sketch or photo a good deck mounted system?
:: I'm in Maine