Mast up or down?

[Phil Shedd]

Doesn't stepping mean placing the bottom of the mast in it's step. The step being a device to receive the mast either deck or keel step. The result of doing so is the mast has been erected.

Phil

[Dean Abramson]

Phil,

I think you are messing with me here...

But technically, I bet you are right. So, you could cut off the bottom two feet of your mast, have the yard place that on the step in your cabin, and you would be done with it; without having to worry about all those nasty stays and shrouds and things.

Hey, that is a good deal at your club. I pay $300 just for mast storage. :-(

Thanks to all who responded.

Dean

[Oswego John]

Phil,

That's what I always thought, too.

My mast step is a piece of aluminum, about an inch high. It has the same shape as the bottom of the mast and is secured just above the ballast. The hollow bottom of the mast (female) slips over the step (male).

The fixed position of the oval step prevents the mast from rotating out of line with the fw'd/ aft axis of the boat. The fixed step, along with the mast hole in the cuddy roof, establishes and maintains the rake of the mast.

O J

[John Vigor]

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

Dean

Dean, no, sorry, we don't have any pictures of that. I'm not sure cameras had been invented in those days, and in any case both of us were hopping around like a one-legged man in an ass-kicking competition to prevent the dinghy from capsizing.

John Vigor