unstepping a CD25D mast

[capedoryus]

Need some advice and maybe a shot of confidence. I researched the methods of unstepping a mast and I tried it yesterday into the early evening. I gave up when we got to dark. Here is what happened. I made a X/A that was laying on the fordeck with a line holding it down till I wanted the mast to come down. The Main sail halyard was attached to the A/X configuration. Head of A was over anchor rolloer and the feet were tied off on a lifeline stantion. I relaxed all the rigging. I only had one lower on one side and a aft lower and upper on the other. I took the forstay turnbucle to the last threads so the it was very loose. Removed the pin on the hinged mast step. I was surprised, and a bit relived, that nothing happened. When I say nothing i mean nothing. I pulled on the backstay, nothing, and even tried to move the mast by prying between the two halves of the hinge. Of course by this time it is getting dark and I am doing this in the water. I gave up at that point for I could not imagine trying to get it all together in the dark if and when it did come down.
The question I have is one that maybe easier to ask than to answer. How much force should I have to use to get the mast to go off center? I think i took care of all the attachment points but please feel free to ask away. Maybe I missed something. I really felt like the mast was stuck from sitting tooo long or that there was another attachment that I missed in the hinge area. Any help is appreciated.
John
Key West Fl

[barfwinkle]

maybe a shot of confidence

Hi John. Make mine a double. I will be raising Rhapsody's mast for a trial run in the coming days. I am terrified.

Good Luck and be sure and report back.

[Jim Buck]

John;

My 22's mast was set up to hinge towards the bow. It could not lower towards the stern. My mast hinge only works in one direction. Is it possible that your 25 is arranged this way?

Jim

[river-rat]

Geometry rules.

I assume the mast pivot is aft of the mast. I order to pivot the mast aft, the top of the mast will go up a bit to get "over center". If, for example, the top mast is 25 feet above the hinge pin and the hinge pin is 6 inches aft of mast center ,the top will have to go up about one eighth of an inch. Not much distance, but if the uppers are tight, they will resist this movement.

To pivot the mast aft, disconnect both forward lowers, slack both aft lowers and both uppers. Then when forestay is released, the mast should be free to pivot. A very gentle pull on the backstay should do the trick.

Be ready to take control of the mast. Gravity also rules. Because the pivoting mast is only held by the hinge pin and the support from the forward connection to the bow it may try to twist.

I hope this helps

[D Rush]

This is a timely topic. I have been working thru the stepping of my CD25 mast in my head all afternoon. I plan to step the mast next Saturday if the weather is right. It was blowing 20 at my boat this morning.

[capedoryus]

I did disconnect the forward lowers and had what i thought was enough slack on the shrouds. Now of course this is a guy in the dusk not really knowing what he is doing. The hinge will let me lower the mast for or aft by removing the proper pin.
I will re attack the situation on Monday for I was called to work on Sunday when was planning on doing this. The boat is in the water so I have to take weather into consideration. Thanks all who have replied. I will state that I hope to make a video and post on u tube to add to the exsisting one there. Now that i have said it let see what happens.
Thanks
John

[Dean Abramson]

On our 25D, the mast had to be unstepped with a crane picking it straight up. (I thought all 25Ds are that way, but perhaps not.) There was no hinge pin. There was a nub on the mast step that went up into the mast.

And, of course, to step it, the mast had to be lowered by a crane straight down.

Dean

[Kurt]

When I raise/lower the mast on my CD27 the only shrouds connected are the two lower aft and backstay. I use a gin pole in my scenario along with a second set of temporary upper shrouds and a bridle that allow the temp shrouds to pivot in the same axis as the mast step hinge pin. The temp shrouds maintain lateral stability as the mast goes up or comes down.
It is a scary procedure...be doubly sure everything is properly connected and STRONG. As the mast comes down and approaches the horizontal position the pull on the control line will approach 400-500 pounds...maybe 300-400 on your 25D. I use a six part block & tackle that runs back to the cockpit to raise or lower the mast. I have photos I could send you if I had your email address.

[capedoryus]

Dean I sure hope I have a hinged mast. I have a set up that has 2 pins that attach what appears to be 2 halves of a hinge that is attached to the boat and to the mast. There is space between the 2 halves of the hinge that is filled with metal spacers. I looked it up in the Spartan catalog and it is called a hinged mast step. Sounds good right? Well as you can see by Kurts reply this is only the beginning.
Thanks Kurt for your reminders of the forces involved. I would love to see how you did yours. My email is capedoryus [at] yahoo [dot] com.
Thanks again
John

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[barfwinkle]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r33VCObNroY&NR=1

If you havent seen this you need to. Also there is a part two @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsLxujYRsMQ

Good Luck and fair winds

[rtbates]

The previous owner of Seraph created a clever mast lifting device using an old Hobie cat mast. He made a base with 2x4 and secured it upright using the genoa sheets and fore/aft with other lines. A line run through the mast head block of the Hobie mast would then be used to pick the 25D's mast up from under the spreaders. I keep the Hobie mast stored on Seraph's trailer and have not tried it YET. When i get to the point where I'll be trailing Seraph, retirement, I must have a way to do the launch and mast rasing and lowering myself. A personality quirk requires that I be self sufficient!!

[barfwinkle]

Well we got Rhapsody's Mast up today. The actual process only took about 15 minutes. We made some errors, which we AARed after Raising the mast.

As soon as the mast hits about 25°-35° most of the serious torque seemed to abate and after that she came right on up. We tried to use the shrouds to stabilize the mast port-starb'd but that didnt work. Fixed the problem by using the halyards. On the way down, it didnt move side to side at all.

Sorry no pics yet, we were too busy getting over what we were doing. It should be much easier from now on.

Fair winds

[Kurt]

For those of you that are interested in stepping your own mast...the following article may prove helpful...

http://www.boatus.com/goodoldboat/maststepping.asp

[barfwinkle]

Cool

I am glad they put article online. This past Saturday we used that system and it worked fine. The only problem we had was that a friend of mine (previous owner of a Kittiwake 23 and used his lower aft/upper shrouds to stabilize the stick) wanted to try his method. NOT

The good ole boat method works well.

Fair Winds and if the trailer bearings pass muster tomorrow, we're Pensacola bound after my grandson's Awards Assembly on Wednesday

[Kurt]

Does Boat U.S. insurance cover mast stepping in the event of a catastrophic failure? Food for thought?