After reading the original booklet that came with my boat, and a variety of posts, I tried to step my mast setting the boom perpendicular to the mast, the boom at the bale guyed off to chainplates on port and starboard sides, main halyard attached to the top of boom, and a pulley system to pull the top of the boom toward the stern of the boat, thereby lifing the mast. Many posts make it sound like it is a "piece of cake" to do this. Things went well until the mast was lifted out of the bow support which was providing lateral resistance, then the mast swung to the starboard side of the boat, taking the top of the boom with it. At this point, I manually lifted the mast back into the bow support, and decided to get 6 guys to heave it up. My conclusions: 1. Guy lines attached to boom need to be rigid or not subject to stretching. I used 3/8 nylon line. Also, I have a tabernacle and pin for mast attachment, I think a hinge would help to provide lateral stability as the mast is lifted. Any comments I'd very much appreciate. Would like to try again in the future.
1st Attempt at Stepping Mast, Ug!! E23II
TwistedLogic
Member II
Mast raising advice
After raising and lowering the mast "my way", I finally tried raising the mast using the "Ericson way" last week. Its not perfect, but it is better than my ways. A couple of tips. Position the boom at the very base of the mast and lock it in place with screw stops. Use quality non-stretch lines for the boom guys, and attach them to the end of the boom, not the bale. With the boom vertical, you can really tighten these up. They will loosen as the mast becomes vertical. Attach the halyard and the pulling system to the end of the boom, not the bale. This helps increase the mechanical advantage. AND, have at least one ape on deck to assist. (Ericson left that out of the instructions). I found it to be manageable, and a lot safer than my way, but not quite as slick as the brochure describes.
After raising and lowering the mast "my way", I finally tried raising the mast using the "Ericson way" last week. Its not perfect, but it is better than my ways. A couple of tips. Position the boom at the very base of the mast and lock it in place with screw stops. Use quality non-stretch lines for the boom guys, and attach them to the end of the boom, not the bale. With the boom vertical, you can really tighten these up. They will loosen as the mast becomes vertical. Attach the halyard and the pulling system to the end of the boom, not the bale. This helps increase the mechanical advantage. AND, have at least one ape on deck to assist. (Ericson left that out of the instructions). I found it to be manageable, and a lot safer than my way, but not quite as slick as the brochure describes.
tenders
Innocent Bystander
That is a good story.
Where is Morgan Steinmetz nowadays?
http://ericsonyachts.org/infoexchange/showthread.php?t=977&highlight=MITCH
Where is Morgan Steinmetz nowadays?
http://ericsonyachts.org/infoexchange/showthread.php?t=977&highlight=MITCH
Brut strength gets it up...Question about boom guys
Three guys heaved the mast up from the bow of the boat. I don't want to do it this way again, since it was physically too difficult. For my next try..., I'm confused about what happens to the tension in the boom guys as the mast is lifted. Ericson says to leave these loose, but I can't see how that works, since this I thought is what keeps the boom vertical as the mast is lifted. I would think that as the mast is initially lifted these tighten up?? Anyone with real world experience, or an engineering mind, have any thoughts? The boom is located on the mast in front of the pivot point where the mast is pinned to the tabernacle on the deck. Thanks again for any comments.
Three guys heaved the mast up from the bow of the boat. I don't want to do it this way again, since it was physically too difficult. For my next try..., I'm confused about what happens to the tension in the boom guys as the mast is lifted. Ericson says to leave these loose, but I can't see how that works, since this I thought is what keeps the boom vertical as the mast is lifted. I would think that as the mast is initially lifted these tighten up?? Anyone with real world experience, or an engineering mind, have any thoughts? The boom is located on the mast in front of the pivot point where the mast is pinned to the tabernacle on the deck. Thanks again for any comments.
The Text Version...
No E-23 experience, but have owned two prior boats with hinged masts. Also helped a friend with his ODay 23 mast once.
Our first boat was a trailerable Ranger 20. That spar was walked up, from the bow, and we did this many times. Little tricky at the 45 degree angle position, and not a task I liked doing afloat.
The ODay 23 spar lowered forward, with the boom as a gin pole, and guys on the end of the boom, and on the spar, to keep both in allignment while hoisting or lowering. I applied that information, years later, when it came time to lower the mast on .......
Our Niagara 26 had a 34 foot spar. It had a hinge pin in the step, but was quite a bit of weight for us to handle. We put it down and up twice in the decade we owned the boat. On that rig we used the spinnaker pole as the gin pole, and lowered it aft to a homemade crutch mounted on the stern pulpit.
Again, the main winch work was with a line from a snatch block at the bow fitting back to a primary winch. The spinn halyard was secured to the end of the pole from the top, and the end of the hoisting line to the same pole end for the down force. On the mast I would lower the bull ring to the lowest position.
There were two side lines (guy lines), hauled up as a pair with jib halyard and then taken to snatch blocks on each rail across from the mast step. Problem is that the pivot point for the mast foot is higher than the rail... so you have to adjust those lines every couple inches as you lower or raise the spar.
Finally, as you noticed already, you do have to guy the end of the gin pole (whether it's the boom or a spinnaker pole) to keep it in plane with the mast.
We also led these guy lines to blocks on the rail and back to the cockpit. Luckily our N-26 had secondary winches...
Anyhoooo, we took it slow an easy, with two of us cranking and tending lines. Hardest part, really, was lifting the whole weight of the rigged spar while standing on the lazerette, with the othe guy holding the foot of the mast down (!) when it came out of the step, and then slowly walking the whole shebang forward to get the spar finally resting on a wood support at the bow and the stern.
No pictures, wish there were some to share...
Loren
No E-23 experience, but have owned two prior boats with hinged masts. Also helped a friend with his ODay 23 mast once.
Our first boat was a trailerable Ranger 20. That spar was walked up, from the bow, and we did this many times. Little tricky at the 45 degree angle position, and not a task I liked doing afloat.
The ODay 23 spar lowered forward, with the boom as a gin pole, and guys on the end of the boom, and on the spar, to keep both in allignment while hoisting or lowering. I applied that information, years later, when it came time to lower the mast on .......
Our Niagara 26 had a 34 foot spar. It had a hinge pin in the step, but was quite a bit of weight for us to handle. We put it down and up twice in the decade we owned the boat. On that rig we used the spinnaker pole as the gin pole, and lowered it aft to a homemade crutch mounted on the stern pulpit.
Again, the main winch work was with a line from a snatch block at the bow fitting back to a primary winch. The spinn halyard was secured to the end of the pole from the top, and the end of the hoisting line to the same pole end for the down force. On the mast I would lower the bull ring to the lowest position.
There were two side lines (guy lines), hauled up as a pair with jib halyard and then taken to snatch blocks on each rail across from the mast step. Problem is that the pivot point for the mast foot is higher than the rail... so you have to adjust those lines every couple inches as you lower or raise the spar.
Finally, as you noticed already, you do have to guy the end of the gin pole (whether it's the boom or a spinnaker pole) to keep it in plane with the mast.
We also led these guy lines to blocks on the rail and back to the cockpit. Luckily our N-26 had secondary winches...
Anyhoooo, we took it slow an easy, with two of us cranking and tending lines. Hardest part, really, was lifting the whole weight of the rigged spar while standing on the lazerette, with the othe guy holding the foot of the mast down (!) when it came out of the step, and then slowly walking the whole shebang forward to get the spar finally resting on a wood support at the bow and the stern.
No pictures, wish there were some to share...
Loren
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