Tabernacles on CD 25-D

[Capt Frank Salomonsen]

I have a 1982 Cape Dory 25-D. Has anyone recently purchased/fabricated/installed a tabernacle on a 25-D?
Capt. Frank Salomonsen

[Fran]

pardon my ignorance Frank but just what is a tabernacle. I have a CD25D. Could I have one and not know it?

[Doug Fallin]

Are you speaking of a Mast Tabernacle? If so, I replaced mine just a week ago on my CD25 (not D, I don't know if they are different). I purchased the SS hinge and step from Dwyer (www.dwyer.com for $100 (w/shipping) and had a local fabricator punch the electrical and deck mounting holes for another $40. To seal the electrical hole between the two SS plates, I used a 1 1/4" ID piece of rubber hose (from the automotive store) about 3/4" long. The hose was a scrap piece they gave me for free. It went together like a charm. It is a vast improvement over the original cast aluminum hinge plates.

I hope this helps.

[barfwinkle]

Hi Capt Frank

I am considering doing the same thing. My only concern is that I fear the standing rig will be about one inch too short once I install the dwyer components.

I need new rigging, but that is not in the budget at the moment, so I have looked at two other options.

1 - buying toggles. The ones I looked at add about one inch in length to the rigging.

2 - Cutting an inch off the mast. I just could not bring myself to do that, so it is either toggles or new rigging.

Those being the choices I am delaying the chore until a later date. But following my recent trip south and the ease with which the truck and trailer made the trip, this is a chore that has to be done because I intend to try and schedule more trips via land to salt water, and being able to use a Genpole to raise the mast myself will be a great cost savings!

If you have other ideas, or hear of any other solutions, I really would like to hear them.

Regarding the length of the existing rigging, I am not sure that it would be too short, but it would be close.

Fair Winds

[Kurt]

I installed the same Dwyer mast step hinge on my CD26. I then worked out a system to self-step the mast that worked well albeit a bit complicated. The method I used was described in Good Old Boat magazine a few years ago.
It's important to also install a compression absorbtion piece between the two halves of the hinge in order to absorb the downward force of the mast. I made mine from carefully sized plywood laminations and then coated it with epoxy to make it more weather proof.

[gsd46]

When we neared completion of the rebuild on our CD25 I had a new mast tabernacle--step plate welded up here in Mobile by a local fabricator. Our mast is too heavy to raise by hand so I devised a sort of crane which fits on the front of our trailer and makes it very easy to raise and lower our mast. The first time using the mast raising system, the new step plate/tabernacle broke at the welds and almost knocked me and my step son off the deck. I made a new step out of heavy aluminum and bolted it together. The day before Katrina hit we floated our boat on the trailer and took her out of the water, lowered the mast and brought her home. Thank goodness we were able to do so. When we put her back in the water, we used our mast raising system again and raised the mast. The goal in this whole thing was to devise a means by which my wife and I could launch and retreive our CD25 to and from the water as well as raise and lower the mast by ourselves with no additional help from anyone.

[Mathias]

For those who want to self-step their masts (at least on masts on the 25 or smaller) I bought a set of gear called Mast-Up. It works well. It allows me to step the mast by myself. It works much easier with another person on hand, which is what I did until I got used to the thing, but you can do it yourself.

The gear consists of metal fittings that you attach to metal rods which you buy yourself. The system creates the type of "cranes" that you see in the do-it-yourself pictures with 2x4s. You can break the system down so that it stowable below.

The gear cost about $200. For some that is expensive, but here on Lake Champlain, we pay $6 per foot of boat length to lower the mast. So, for me, it paid for itself pretty quickly.

I am at travelling right now and don't have the addy for the gear, but if you are interested, email me and I will dig it out.

-Mathias