Need to pull mast?

[Ralph Hewitt]

How do you pull a master from Ericson 34 while on the beach and No equipment?
We lost "No Bad Days" to storm NATE. pictures, nicaralph@gmail.com
My Sea Scouts are trying to salvage what they can...
Boat is wrecked and on beach after 4 days of 12-19 ft waves pounding and filling with santander saltwater. All broken up, going to use mast & rig as flag pole for beach area.
How to lift and pull without equipment??? Please help, any ideas?

 

[Tom Metzger]

All broken up, going to use mast & rig as flag pole for beach area.
How to lift and pull without equipment??? Please help, any ideas?

Ralph - Sorry to hear about your losing No Bad Days. To get the mast out with the boat lost I would put a bumper jack ( https://www.harborfreight.com/42-in-off-road-farm-jack-60668.html or similar They must be common in Nicaragua) on the deck fastened to the mast and start jacking. Sooner or later I would expect the mast to bend and fall over so it would be safe to cut it off with a Sawzall or hack saw. It will probably happen when the mast leaves the base.

Obviously, remove the stays and shrouds and the deck tie down in the cabin first, and be very careful. Bad things can happen if you don't pay attention.

Be very careful!!!!

 

[Loren Beach]

Since the whole rig is very similar to ours, my rough estimate is about 150# to 200# with all shrouds and halyards still attached. You have to lift it about 6.4 feet from the step until it clears the cabin top.
Perhaps an A frame of 4X4 timber tall enough to pick it from just below the upper spreaders would do. Run guy lines out to sturdy stakes -- use a surplus halyard or two.
Or just cheat and bring an excavator down to the beach and use a bridle from the bucket.

Good luck,
Loren

 

[toddster]

Very difficult to advise on how to rig this without better knowledge of how it lies. I'd suggest looking into gin poles, but there may be other simpler ways to lower. Well, of course there are simpler ways to lower it, but needing it to come down intact complicates things. Any pics?
Loren's knowledge is superior, but I'll just throw out that the mast of my 29 weighs well over 300 lbs. With the rigging on it, even more. With most of the weight way up high, the lever arm forces can be large. But also the additive strenght of a bunch of boys can be large and satisfying.
Think it out carefully, be safe, have fun. Be safe.