Crealock Ericson 26 mast takedown?

[Scandsailor]

I have a 1969 Ericson 26' that I'm possibly going to trailer for some maintenance. Anyone have any guides, walk throughs, videos, or pics of the mast mount on the older Bill Crealock designed Ericson 26? I'd like to get as much detail as I can; I might be doing this myself with a team of people.

 

[Christian Williams]

This might apply. Or at least bump the thread.

Mast stepping an Ericson 25 CB video

I occasionally find people ask about the process of stepping the mast on this boat, so I made a video showing how I do it. I apologize for the grammatical errors/typos. Was actually filmed beginning of last season!

ericsonyachts.org

 

[Scandsailor]

The main problem I am worried out is causing damage to the mast and deck fitting. It looks like the mast slips over the fitting on the Crealock 26 as it is set down onto the deck fitting. If I were to use a gin pole, wouldn't it stress those fittings? I also can't see where the electrical wiring passes through other than the antenna cable.

 

[Loren Beach]

Yes you do need a hinge or pivot type of mast foot-to-deck piece if using a gin pole. Can you post up a picture of the present mast base?

 

[Scandsailor]

 

[Loren Beach]

Example of a different spar maker, and different era.

https://www.sparcraft.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Empl_socle_bouchon_dec2022_PDM.pdf

Same principle as yours, from decades earlier. In my experience such a spar needs to be lifted straight up about 4 inches, and that will involve a crane. (Albeit, a small crane. We have a "mast puller" permanently rigged on one of our docks at our yacht club for just such smaller spars. BTW, if you are in a commercial fishing environment and make friends with some of those guys, you could probably use their hydraulic crane boom on a high pier that is normally used to lift hundreds of # of fish.... (!)
Your spar fully rigged is likely under 100# or so.

It is possible to re-rig the spar base for a hinged tabernacle, but that's a project by itself.

 

[ConchyDug]

Gin pole is kind of a loose term for something that helps a mast go up and down I have discovered. We use a "gin pole" for lifting spars on larger trailer racers. Makes you self sufficient when trailering to events. Something like this would probably work great in your situation, with a smaller aluminum spar it should only take 1-2 people. The boat in the video has about a 50' spar so you need bodies to wrangle it past the balance point.