Stepping mat on CD25

[Tom Foley]

Please share with me some techniques for stepping the mast without using a crane. Thanks



alewifehouse@mainecoast.net

[Warren Kaplan]

Please share with me some techniques for stepping the mast without using a crane. Thanks

Tom.
Just had the mast on my CD27 stepped without a crane. The yard used the Travel Lift (or whatever the contraption is called that slings the boat and hoist it off the cradle and puts it into the water and visa versa. This is what they did.
They brought the boat into the slip where the travel lift was..bow towards land. They laid the mast over the step, mostly horizontally, and had the rest of the mast laying in the slings with the travel lift as far back on land as they could. The slings where as high on the travel lift as they could make them. They got 4-5 men to hang onto the shrouds and stays while one guy was at the mast step. Then they brought the travel lift forward gradually over the boat. As they did that the mast was forced into a more and more vertical position. The men balanced it with the appropriate hauling on the stays and shrouds until they could get the mast into the step. Then they hooked up everything.
I have to tell you that it was a scarry thing to watch. It is a very poor second to using a crane. But my yard (and I suspect your yard) didn't have a crane. So that's how they did it. I watched them do someone else's boat first. As I said, it wasn't pretty. But if they get enough guys to handle the stays and shrouds and they go slowly and carefully, it can be done in 10 - 15 minutes. My boat came out of it "uninjured", but I think at the end of this year I will either store the boat with the mast still rigged (like most boats in that yard) or find a new yard that has a crane.
Hope this helps.
Warren



Setsail728@aol.com

[Bruce Bett]

Tom:

I've stepped the mast on Sostenuto several times without a crane, most recently last Saturday. You need 3 people to do it. Here's how.

1. Lay the mast on deck with the masthead aft.
2. Attach the backstay and the two aft lower shrouds to their chainplates.
3. Attach a long halyard (I use the spinnaker halyard) to the bowchock and turn the other end around the halyard winch.
4. Pull the mast aft and raise it so that the base can be attached to the aft connection in the mast step. At this point one person is standing on the poop holding the mast and another is at the mast step making the attachment.
5. The person on the poop now raises the masthead until it’s high enough that winching the halyard can raise it.
6. The winch can do the lifting all right. The trick now is lateral stability. The mast is going to want to swing off to port or starboard. Two people in the cockpit need to steady it. The critical moment is when the mast gets high enough that the people in the cockpit can no longer reach it. At this point one needs to steady it while the other climbs up on the cabin trunk. This is why you need three people.
7. Once the person on the cabin trunk can steady the mast the person in the cockpit should see that all lines and stays are clear. It’s easy for something to get fouled in this procedure. He should also make sure that there is no twist in the lower shrouds. I have bent more than one turnbuckle doing this.
8. Once the mast is up, cleat the halyard and attach the forstay and the forward lowers.

As I say I’ve done this several times and it’s not too bad. A word of warning to you guys with bigger boats, I wouldn’t want to try this with a mast much heavier than the 25s.

Bruce Bett
Sostenuto
CD25 #496


Please share with me some techniques for stepping the mast without using a crane. Thanks



bettb@macomb.cc.mi.us

[Bill Smith]

Have you tried putting your boat between two other sailboats and attaching their main halyards under your spreaders and then lifting with the two outside boats main winch. the outside boats mast should be a little forward of the boat that is to have the mast installed.
After the mast step has been connected it is a simple matter to crank on the two winchs evenly and the mast comes right up. no worry about the mast going to port or staboard. This works to also lower the mast. I have used this method several times.

Bill Smith
CD 25
Okie Dory



RWSmth@aol.com

[Jon]

Tom,

I agree with Bruce; the 25 is about the upper end for this sort of thing. I have seen it done with a few guys holding the mast steady while another uses a good boom vang for mechanical advantage on the lift. As the mast guys loose their advantage due to height, the vang finishes the lift. The lower end goes on the bow cleat, and the upper is connected to a line lead around the mast over the spreaders. The back stay and aft lower spreaders are attached first,and the mast pivots up (theoretically) on the aft pin. I still say a crane is the way to go.

Good luck,
Jon



ringj@mediaone.net

[Tom foley]

Thanks for your ideas. Last year my son and I did it by going to a high pier at low tide and putting the bow slightly under the pier. We attached the mast to the step and also attached the side and rear shrowds. I tied a line to the main halyard. My son climbed a ladder with the line. He was at the same height as mast top. He then simply pulled the mast straight up. I then secured the forestay and forward shrowds.

Tom
Heather, CD25, Kennebunk, Maine



alewifehouse@mainecoast.net

[Paul]

Please share with me some techniques for stepping the mast without using a crane. Thanks

I sent this to some others before so I'll just cut and paste for you and see what happens

Paul

Ed
I just sent this to another guy. So I'll send you the same info.

I have a system that uses a jin pole. I've been perfecting it for about a year now and it gets easier/safer each time. I still hold my breath tho when she's straight up without any shrouds connected. Then comes the sigh of relief after the lowers are attached. It takes my wife and I about an hour to raise or lower the mast. I'm looking into a power winch setup so I can do it myself. I always raise/lower when the boat is on the trailer since it won't roll or pitch. I never raise/lower if any wind is present.

READ........
You MUST always inspect your equipment before use since there is a Significant threat of injury or death if the system fails with the 150lb mast over your head. Please read that again. I do not claim that this system will work in all conditions. Nor do I claim that this system is safe. You must judge that for yourself.

Now for the "PBS mast raising system".

I use a 3"x3" aluminum box tube for the jin pole. mine is 18' tall. Possibly a round or oval section would be better since the edge of the 3x3 can scratch the mast if your not careful. An old mast section from a smaller boat would probably work well.

A 3/16" galvanized cable runs over about a 4" v-belt pully mounted in the top of the pole and back down to a small manual winch which is mounted about 4' from the bottom of the pole. The pole is placed on a piece of plywood about 4" in front of the mast step and secured with 3 stays of 3/16" galvanized cable. One stay runs to the genoa tack shackle. The other 2 run down to the genoa sheet blocks and back to the sheet winches. Eyes in the ends of the cables are dropped over the winches. A turnbuckle on the "forestay" is then tightened to secure the whole works. The "backstays" need to go inside the main shrouds above the spreaders so that when the mast is vertical nothing is tangled. This assumes the mast is positioned with its base forward and the front face of the mast is pointing up.

The plywood base has a block of wood secured to its top where the pole fits so the pole base cannot kick out. The bottom of the plywood has wooden cleats which fit over the forward part of the mast step and behind the forward hatch (CD27) to keep the plywood base from moving around.

I next secure a heavy line around the mast just under the spreaders (under the lowers also) using a bowline (keep it close). The standing part then is secured to a mast winch to keep the loop from creaping up the mast and allow you to pull the cable and loop down after the mast is raised.

The hoisting cable is secured to the loop.

Make sure all the mast's stays are free and will not get caught on the way up. I am still surprised how those turnbuckles can get caught under the oddest things at the most inopportune times.

One person cranks away (smoothly) on the winch (always make sure the rachet (sp?) is engaged). The other person guides the base of the mast as she goes up. This end (on a CD27) is light so it must be held down when guiding. Unfortunately, I couldn't figure a way to attach the lift cable above the balance point.

Keep cranking and guiding until the mast fits over the step. Then lower CAREFULLY until she rests in the step.

Secure the double lowers temporarily so she can't fall. Then the uppers and fore/backstays.

Lowering is mostly the reverse of raising except the winch man (or woman in my case) MUST lower smoothly and maintain control of the winch since it will freefall if the handle slips. This would be a disaster!

This whole setup etc. sounds more complicated when written than it really is. Once you do it, it really is straight forward. Hopefully I have mentioned it enough to BE CAREFULL and AWARE of your surroundings and gear because if you miss something and something goes wrong it's gonna hurt!

When I use this system it works very nicely and has not failed me. But I always inspect everything (bolts, cable, swages, winches, pole, sheet blocks) the works before I use it.

Let me know if you have more questions since I probably left many items out.

Paul

ESCAPADE
CD27 #224




MRISNOW@INAME.COM

[A.J.Shyka]

Please share with me some techniques for stepping the mast without using a crane. Thanks

"A picture is worth a thousand words"

After 3 years of refinement, my "A" frame of 2" aluminum tubing, wooden feet, a few assorted fixtures,a 4 to 1 pulley system ratio, 80 feet of 5/8" holding line or scavenged pot warp and three people [can be done with two] can rase a CD 25 mast with ease and very limited risk.
I would be happy to send a schematic of this system on paper, by U.S.mail, to you or any other interested CD 25 owner upon request.





shyka@mint.net