Mast up or down?

[Dean Abramson]

The other threads related to winter layup have gotten me thinking. This has long been one of those "I've always wondered why" questions for me.

Here in Maine, as far as I can tell, virtually all sailboats stored on the hard have the masts unstepped. But when I was shopping for our current boat, in winter, I noticed that I didn't have to travel that far south to find that pretty much all the sailboats were stored with the masts still up. I also noticed that one could order a Fairclough cover either with a mast hole or not, although I am a little foggy about how that accomodates the standing rigging.

All of our boats have wintered with the mast out. Since I have the boat trucked to our home, this is how it will always be. But I am thinking of all of those boats stored right at the boatyards. A boat with the rig up takes up no more space. Is it just that the yards up here have somehow managed to convince the public that this twice-annual income-producer is simply a way of life? Or is it that so many folks just tell the yard "cover it," and it's just much easier to cover a boat with no mast?

I think that if my boat were stored at the yard, and I had a good mast-up type of cover, I might be happy to leave the mast up, say, two out of three seasons.

I do like inspecting my mast every year. But the unstep-store-step routine adds a lot of expense. (Our smaller boats' masts used to come home too, but the current one is too big to handle, so I pay to store it at the yard.)

I was really struck with how much this differs from place to place. Our CD31 is an '84, and until we bought it in early '06, I think it is possible that the mast had never been down. I say that because there was no plug for the wires running up the mast to the lights. When the boatyard in North Carolina unstepped the mast, they had to simply cut the cable. I know someone down south who, I believe, has not seen the top of his mast in twenty years.

I would love to hear others' thoughts on this. Do my southern brethren really take the ole bosun's chair up the mast to check things out on a regular basis? (One of my major sailing goals is to never go up there!) Where is the Mason-Dixon line of mast-up-or-downness? John V., what do up guys do up there?

Dean

[Neil Gordon]

Almost all of the boats are stored with masts stepped.

I've seen lots of discussions about stress on the boat with the rig up, as out of the water it's the stands that need to absorb the heeling force. There doesn't seem to be any evidence of boats being damaged, though. No incidents of boats being blown over, either.

Fitting a winter cover is more difficult with the rig in place. Interesting that there's no difference in what they charge for shrink wrapping, which is all priced by the foot.

[Dean Abramson]

And there is virtually no difference in the amount of snow you get, Neil, and southern Maine. Interesting.
Dean

[Nesja]

We bought our CD25D in 1999 in Camden, Maine, where it had been stored on the hard at Wayfarer Yachts, where, at that time, I was told that our CD25D, just like all the other sailboats there, was stored with the mast down --- because the boat yard (and/or their insurance company) had determined that the ground there was not sufficiently stable to provide even support given the increased wind loads that could be encountered with the mast up.

After the original purchase we have kept our boat in one of two boat yards in Rockland, Maine (still Midcoast), mostly at Knight Marine. I would say that the majority of boats there are stored with the masts up, not down. We have been keeping ours with the mast up.

[Leonard Lookner]

We have always unstepped our mast and primarily because we store inside. but the mast ends up inside for 5 months a year and out of the weather. I suppose that might account for some longevity plus the opportunity to examine the mast and various components. My concern, however is the annual stepping requires removing and than refastening and positioning all the mast head wires, and it does lead to some wear and tear at the junctions.

[Al Levesque]

We stored our CD inland for a few years and had the mast taken down each year. This caused uncertainty and occasional damage to wiring and to the boot at the partners. We even had damage to our radar one year, never learned why. More recently we have been storing where it is possible to keep the mast up and it has been a relief. We loosen the stays and shrouds and assure that the halyards get minimum chafe. Covering around the mast is less trouble than covering over stanchions, the mast makes a nice post to tie covers to.

[Dean Abramson]

We love having the boat here on our lawn in the spring. It's so convenient to work on. Even if I just want to work on it for an hour, it's right there. Plus I get to stare at the hull all winter. Sometimes while brainstorming in the dead of winter, I can climb aboard just to remind myself how things are set up. I like all of that part.

But now, with a huge keel-stepped mast, it is much more nerve-wracking either watching or just thinking about the stepping and unstepping. The yard has always done a great job. But when I think of the base of the mast in that beautiful cabin, and the leverage involved if there was ever a mess-up... Yikes. And I do worry about all of my cables, my radar, etc.

Cost-wise, trucking her home, plus the yard charges, is about the same, even a bit less, than leaving her at the boatyard. I am going to stick with my routine. But if I stored at a yard, I might be looking into mast-up options, at least two out of three years or so.

Dean

[John Vigor]

I would love to hear others' thoughts on this. Do my southern brethren really take the ole bosun's chair up the mast to check things out on a regular basis? (One of my major sailing goals is to never go up there!) Where is the Mason-Dixon line of mast-up-or-downness? John V., what do up guys do up there?

Dean

Dean, boats in the Puget Sound area can stay in the water year-round, so the masts also stay up year-in and year-out.

In theory, we should all go up the mast for a physical inspection at least once a year, but few of us do it with that regularity. I haul for bottom painting once every two years, and at every second haul I have the yard take the mast down. So I get a good look at everything up aloft every four years.

I am always shocked at the price the yard charges for dropping and raising the mast. I remember the days when I used to pull the stick on my 28 footer with the help of two friends with 24-footers.
They rafted up alongside, one on each side of me, and we made loops with their main halyards and hauled them up under my spreaders. Then they both cranked away, lifted my mast, and laid it down on the pushpit and pulpit.

Then my wife and I would wrestle the mast overboard onto our 11-foot Mirror racing dinghy, and paddle it ashore to a jetty at our yacht club. From there we hoisted it onto the roof rack of our car and drove it 75 yards to the spar yard, put it on sawhorses, and worked on it as we liked.

Raising the mast again was a reversal of this procedure. The total cost? A couple of bottles of something strong for the owners of the 24-footers, and a commitment to help them out in the same manner when they wanted to remove their masts.

In my old marina at Oak Harbor, on Whidbey Island, they have a tall pole with a block on top and a stout line rove through it. I've watched many trailer-sailers raise and lower their masts with its help, and it's quite free.

Our marina here in Bellingham has a wharfside swiveling electric crane that does the same job without the manual labor. The cost last time I checked was $5 a go. The only problem is that there's usually a fishing boat using it. No fisherman I know would pay $120 to have someone else lower his mast for him.

Cheers,

John Vigor

[The Patriot]

... I am always shocked at the price the yard charges for dropping and raising the mast. I remember the days when I used to pull the stick on my 28 footer with the help of two friends with 24-footers. They rafted up alongside, one on each side of me, and we made loops with their main halyards and hauled them up under my spreaders. Then they both cranked away, lifted my mast, and laid it down on the pushpit and pulpit ... The total cost? A couple of bottles of something strong for the owners of the 24-footers, and a commitment to help them out in the same manner when they wanted to remove their masts ...
John Vigor

I ran 10 messengers up the mast and removed all the running rigging back in 2002 at layup. Unfortunately "Kerry Deare" saw no action until 2007, and it happened that during this hiatus the spinnaker messenger parted and had to be replaced. Last week when hauling following a summer of no sailing but much refurbishing, I asked the yard to set aside time to run the messenger in anticipation of next year's sailing. The boat yard manager went up (I volunteered but did not get the assignment) using the mast crane and fitted the new messenger. Charge: 1/2 hour labor (aka $37.50).

I think the charge was fair, but I certainly long for the old days that you referred to when things just "got done" and there was less fuss (and wallet attacks).

[Phil Shedd]

Dean

Here even further to the north east almost everybody is ready for winter. This is the first year a boat at our club has left it mast up . The club has a mast storage building and costs $50.00 a year to store your mast . The building is used by junior sailing in the summer.

The club also has a gin pole for stepping masts at no cost to a member. However if the water is high and you are keel stepped than you will need a boom truck. Cost $ 50.00.

I figure that with club membership ,slip with power, winter boat storage ,mast storage, boat moving, summer cradle storage, launch, haul out and mast stepping my cost is about $ 1800.00 per year. The club also supplies power and water to work on your boat in the spring, water at the slip and free pump out.

Phil

[BillNH]

Sounds like a great deal to me, Phil. Lots of places in New England you can't even get a slip for that price, much less a haulout, launch, storage, mast step & unstep and a club membership to boot!

[Mitch F]

We always try to leave the mast up unless there is a project that needs attention or the boat needs to travel overland. The only downside to unstepping it is that its a nuisance to tarp around.

Here is an account of how we got the mast down on our old boat back when I was a broke student: http://www.ericsonyachts.org/infoexchan ... stcount=13

[Dan & Pat]

Ok folks, I'm one of those who's finicky about the proper use of vernacular or terminology. It is the teacher in me I guess

I have been led to believe that the term "stepping the mast" meant taking it down. Some authors of this thread refer to un-stepping the mast as taking it down.

Which is it???

(Waiting with anticipation of a riot)

[Joe Myerson]

Hi Dan and Pat:

As an editor and boating writer, your query got me worried. Could I have got it wrong all these years?

So I looked it up.

Here's a citation from an online dictionary:

"un·step· (step′)

transitive verb

Naut. to remove (a mast) from its step or socket."

And here's the definition of "unstep" provided by my copy of the American Heritage College Dictionary:

"un•step, tr. v.—naut.—To remove (a mast) from a step."


I'm sure others will add more erudite citations, but I'm afraid you've got "unstep" wrong: It involves taking a mast out of its step.


--Joe[/i]

[Dean Abramson]

And I would add that "stepping" means putting it up.

John V.: You have any photos of you two ferrying the mast ashore? That I would love to see!

Dean