Mast stepping revisited

[JMAC]

I was able to get the 27' mast to my Rhodes 18 in today for the first time by standing on my shed roof with the mast leaning against the main building with a friend. We hoisted it up and over the rail and onto the cockpit bench. He then climbed in and we lifted it onto the foredeck and through, down to the step. All the rigging works out and I hoisted the sails which look to be almost new. But...

The boat launch is some five miles away, and there is no shed roof over there to stand on. I scouted it out this evening and the only thing I saw that could help was a phone pole, unused about 25' tall, but there was a new, much taller one right next to it that was all wired up.

My other thought was to get the boat in the water and heel it over to the rail and try to stick in the mast in a more of a sideways approach. Any thoughts?

[John B]

Can you use the boom and spinnaker pole ?
It might be worth making some semi permanent sheerlegs that you leave with the trailer. 2 x 10 or 12 ft poles would probably do it.
It won't be a terribly heavy mast will it ?

[Jay Greer]

If you can get the boat into a slip with access on either side, the mast can be stepped with a set of shear legs.
These are two legs, made of any convenient material that are taller than the center point of your spar and stong enough to support same. One on each finger of the slip or even on the deck of the boat, with padding on the heels, should allow a tackle to be rove between the two and hoisting should be a snap!
fore and after guys go without saying. This is the method used at most of the old yards prior to the invention to the standing leg crane.
JMG

[Paul Scheuer]

Somewhere in the previous pages there is a photo report on a mast stepping adventure that involved launching the boat with the mast lashed on deck and motoring to a convenient railroad bridge. As I recall it was a heavy, keel stepped mast. Catboat I think.

I use a rotating bi-pod for my deck-stepped Compac 23 mast. I'm too old for heroics, so I use lifting tackle to keep everything under control.

If you plan to do this on a regular basis, you might consider a temporary tabernacle to keep the butt of the mast under control until you get it vertical.

[Ian McColgin]

I take it this is a regularly planked Rhodes and will be living in the water. You probably should let her swell a week before rigging. Anyway, one way I got just such a mast up on a friend's Rhodes involved three people and two ten or twelve foot long poles with plywood U's - like crutch sockets - at one end.

We brought her into the beach and braced her aground. With me in the boat and the mast heel on the centerboard trunk butting against the combing, I held the heel down while the other two started it up first by hand and then one pole moved after another, walking down the mast as it went up. As the mast got near verticle and the pole was under and against the spreaders, the other pole was set from the bow against it. Now the mast really could be lifted entirely by the two working their poles but it was easier if I helped as well as guided. Over the partners and down.

Easy enough.

G'luck

Edited to add: For striking that mast, I'd just take the boom off, rrelease all stays and tie them near the gooseneck. Then, standing on deck with the boat in say 3' of water, I'd do a fast clean verticle lift and hold the heel while the mast tipped to the water, letting go such that it smacked a belly flop.

[ 07-16-2005, 08:31 AM: Message edited by: Ian McColgin ]

[JMAC]

OK, I haven't done it yet, but here's the plan- I treat the unused telephone pole at the boat launch as a schooner mast. I made a boom out of a 16'doug fir 2x3. I tied a block on one end. the other end will be the low end that will get fastened to the pole and allowed to go up and down. The boom has a rope bridle that fastens by the block and midway. There will be a line going from the bridle to a block that I'll put on the pole around 16' up. This will raise and lower the boom. When it's set up, the boom will be some 25' off the ground, good enough to grab my mast and hoist it up above the rail of the boat on the trailer. It should all be controlled. The mast weighs around 60 or 70 pounds so I won't be over stressing anything. This seem s like it will work well. Am I missing anything here? Launch is this week.

[WFK]

When I raced Dragons we used what was called a "Gin Pole" to raise the mast. Essentially a temporary mast made from aluminium or wood with a block and tackle at the top used to raise your mast.
Go to google, type in "mast gin pole" and you'll get all the help you need!

Bill