Help:
Removing the Mast. (back to
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You can remove and make BIG coils of the rod and put
it below, but this makes putting everything back
together much harder as you have to work against the
rod's memory of the coiling when trying to get the
clevis pins back through the chain plates. For most
trips, we would just leave the shrouds on the mast
and use trusty duct tape to keep it in place. If you
are an experienced duct tape user, you can bundle all
the shrouds and halyards without letting tape
adhesive on the mast.
You will need five or more people the first time you
are pulling the mast.
Later, as you become more expert you can do it with
as few as three. One person will operate the hoist.
One person will handle the mast butt. One person will
be below decks to watch the butt move out, then go on
deck to catch the mast head as the mast is laid on
the deck. One person will be on the pier to move the
boat if needed. Another couple of people are useful
to watch to make sure nothing gets snagged and to
heal the boat if necessary.
As you prepare to remove the mast, take a micrometer
and measure the distance of separation on all the
shroud turnbuckles. You can reset to these
measurements after you put the mast back up to get a
good rough tuning. You should not need to loosen the
turnbuckle on the forestay. Loosen and remove
the shroud turnbuckles. Loosen the backstay and
remove the backstay and forestay. Go below deck and
remove all the rigging and electrical stuff off the
mast which could prevent the mast from coming out of
the hole. Pre-position some study lashing at the
pulpit and pushpit to lash the mast in place
temporarily after you lower it to the deck. The mast
will end up with the butt on the pulpit and the
masthead on the pushpit.
The mast has to come up about 45 inches for the butt
to clear the deck. If your boat hoist is 50 to 60
inches above your lower spreaders, you will be able
to use it without too much specialized rigging. If
this is the case, fashion a loop of strong line
outside of the lower shrouds and all halyards, but
inside the upper shrouds (and intermediate shrouds if
you have them). I often attach a couple of long lines
to this loop to help the guys on the deck clear the
loop if it gets snagged on anything as it slides up
the mast toward the spreaders. This loop will be
hooked to the hoist, with the hoist on the front side
of the mast to reduce the chance of catching on the
swept-back spreaders, and the hoist will be raised to
bring the loop up the spreaders and then the mast
gets raised until the mast base is clear of the deck.
Once clear of the deck, walk the mast butt forward
and lower the hoist until the mast is on the deck. Be
careful of the masthead fly.
If your hoist is not 50 to 60 inches above the lower
spreaders, let me know.
There are some ways to rig to do this, but the mast
becomes more unwieldy the further from the balance
point it is lofted.
Overall, this is a simple, but nervous evolution. If
you can find someone who has done it before to help
you that would be good.
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