Mast Fitting Identification

[treilley]

With the help of some friends I moved my mast into my basement today. I am in the process of removing all the fittings and trying to decide whether or not I need them. Attached are some jam cleats and loops of shock cord. They are near the same level as the boom. Can anyone tell me what these are used for? I believe the original owner raced the boat so it might have something to do with the spinnaker rigging. Thanks.

 

[Seth]

Mast fittings

These appear to be the stoppers/jam cleats for the adjustable inboard end of the spinnaker pole track. The inboard end of the pole should fit onto a car on a track, mounted on the fwd face of the mast. This car has a purchase arrangement(attached at the top and bottom of the car)so you can raise or lower the inoboard end of the pole to optimize pole height (and hence spinn trim), and the jammers are the cleats to secure the up and down lines. The bungee cords might be to stow the tails of the purchase after it has been secured in the jam cleats.

If there is or was a track on the fwd edge of mast, I am sure this is what you are looking at.

Enjoy!

S

 

[treilley]

Thanks Seth. There is a track on the front of the mast but only a single line attached to the car. The line attaches to the lower end of the track, goes up to a pully at the car, back down to a pully at the bottom of the track, runs up to the pully at the top of the track and back down to the pully on the top of the car and back up the the top of the track. It would be a stretch to use those cleats to secure the line although it may have been rigged differently early in the boat's life.

 

[Seth]

Mast track

Got it- this IS the inboard end pole adjustment system-it uses a single continuous line (like single line reefing-sort of), the the jam cleats are the method of securing the up and down location..Mystery solved!

HNY!
S

 

[Sean Engle]

I have to ask - what does the space look like where you're working on the mast?

I mean, it has to be 40' long at least, right? Do you have it in a long hallway or something? I'm quite curious...



//sse

 

[treilley]

I have a daylight basement that is about 58 ft. long. The mast is about 55 ft. My house was moved to this site and they leave a couple of 2x2 cutouts on each end of the concrete wall in order to pull out the I beams they used for moving the house. You can see this cutout at the top of the photo just below the light.