Mast Raising Systems

Build one of these, Chris, and you can raise MARTHA C's mast without help. http://www.google.com/search?q=Sailboat+Mast+raising&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&channel=sb

On 6/23/2014 8:41 PM, Larry Knowles 3e… [at] earthlink.net [Cal_Boats] wrote: > > > Build one of these, Chris, and you can raise MARTHA C's mast without help. The real problem with the Cal 20 is that in order to secure the pivot bolt in the mast step, you have to carry the mast aft until you're standing at the transom and holding it past the balance point, so the step wants to rise up. The second person is necessary to push down on the step and secure the pivot bolt. Don't think I haven't been tempted in the past few years when it's been hard to find a second person. There's a second problem too. Almost invariably, one of the shrouds or stays gets hooked under a cleat, under the sliding hatch, under the forward hatch, anywhere is is theoretically possible to get hooked, and a few that aren't, it will get stuck when the mast is 1/2 way up. The phenomenon calls out for a name. I can't name it for myself because there's already a Campbell's Law that I created (nothing will ever happen on time in court unless you are not there). Chris Campbell

I don't have a Cal 20 (I know, but it's spelled with a "K" so I'm going for the exemption... I use a 6ft fiberglass step ladder. Open it up and place in the cockpit with the steps on the aft side and tie down. ( I put it over my barney post and use the mainsheet to pull it straight down.) Depending on if I'm going up or down, I tie a line from the upper part of the ladder fore or aft to keep the ladder from moving when I slide the mast. For up, it's a forward line. With mast laying on deck fore and aft (butt towards bow since the step hinges aft on my boat) Of course if mast is already on the boat, I have to slide it to the side far enough to get the ladder tied down in the middle. With butt bungied to the bow pulpit,, I pick up mast and set it on the top of the ladder. Make sure all your shrouds, lines etc are tied to mast or otherwise free to move. Have the pin for the step available to grab with no more than one hand. Undo bow pulpit bungie. Carefully slide mast aft on top of ladder while keeping butt under control (clenching helps...). Your end will start to want to lift as you push the mast past the balance point on the ladder. Watch those shrouds, like you said they hang up on everything. Having a short boathook or stick to poke things can be helpful but I manage most times without having to back up and untangle. Keep pushing aft and down until you get the butt of the mast to the step and can get the pin inserted. You can now stand up and rest. Your mast should be attached to the step hinge point and sticking up at an angle out the back of the boat. (now is when you notice you forgot to put the windex on) For the next part, I use the spin halyard but you could also use a jib halyard as well. Ensure the fall is cleated or tied securely on the mast such that there is enough out to reach about two feet short of the step. It must be free all the way up to the mast block on the forward side. Attach a block to the stemhead fitting somewhere and run a jib sheet or something thru it and attach to the halyard we prepared in the previous step. Run the other end of the sheet back to the cockpit preferably through a stopper or cam cleat and on back to your ladder. I have a centerline winch right at the top of the hatch with a set of stoppers right in front of it, you may have to improvise. Before lifting look carefully at the whole arrangement. Will everything you've tied or attached to the mast, halyard, etc, be low enough for you to reach it once the mast is vertical? Remove ties or make adjustments to be sure. Once you're satisfied, grab the sheet you rigged back from the stemhead through the stopper or whatever and feed it through the ladder in an appropriate spot (fair lead is less important than not accidentally pulling it up out of a Cam cleat if you're using one). Step up onto the ladder and put the mast on your shoulder. Climb as high as you can comfortably (this is why ladder is securely tied down!) Pull the slack from the sheet as you climb. When you get as high as you can go, you get to do the double three handed move. While lifting the mast with one hand as high as you can reach, also pull as much slack as possible and put as much tension as possible on the line to hold it up (this is where having the stopper, winch combo is really nice.) Once again if you have the line on a cleat or something equivalent, you should be able to let go and step off the ladder. If not, you will have to figure out how to hold the mast up while you get off the ladder. Crank or sweat the mast up the rest of the way with your line, watching the backstay to be sure it falls into place without snagging the rudder or anything else. Cleat off and go forward to connect headstay. Mast should stay there on its own now. Clean up, attach shrouds, tune mast and you're ready for action. To de-rig is mostly reverse. On my boat the cap shrouds and backstay stay connected, I disconnect the headstay and lower shrouds to do this. It's very desirable to have chainplates that run fore and aft so the pin acts as a hinge. Relying on the turnbuckle toggle to do the bending could overstress things and cause damage. (Review your setup carefully) I loosen one lower shroud and pull the pin, then just pull the mast to the other side which gives me enough slack to get the pin out on the other lower. I next slack both cap shrouds till they're near the ends of the turnbuckles. If I have my spin halyard attached to the pulpit then just lightly tension and cleat off on the mast. Rig the stemhead block and sheet to the end of the spin halyard and tension. Disconnect the headstay. Ladder is rigged as before but this time will need a line going aft so it doesn't tip forward as you slide the mast. Line rigged through ladder as before but stopper must be released, a single wrap on the winch or a ratchet block is perfect. Climb as high as you can and start lowering the mast. Reach up and grab it as it gets to your max reach point. Take weight and let go of line, climb back down, resting mast on ladder when you get to the deck. Undo your rig and go to mast step. Push down on butt to get slack to remove pin. Let butt rise and carefully pull it towards the bow across the top of the ladder. (watch the tangles again) When you reach the bow pulpit use the bungies you pre-staged (you did this, right?) to tie it off to the pulpit. Un-rig, set mast on deck (or wherever you do) remove ladder. Disclaimer: I've never done this in the water! I do it on the trailer in the parking lot, then launch. So I don't get my backstay wet and don't tip over and fall off the ladder when some jerk wakeboard boat goes by. I've done it numerous times alone (90%) with no troubles. My boat is 24 ft and the mast is 32 feet long. I am of average strength, but I am over 6 ft tall which helps with getting the mast up higher during the raising. Should be better angles and everything with a 10 foot shorter mast. Good Luck! Kris On Wednesday, June 25, 2014 9:34 AM, "Chris Campbell cc… [at] lsnm.org [Cal_Boats]" <Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com> wrote: On 6/23/2014 8:41 PM, Larry Knowles 3e… [at] earthlink.net [Cal_Boats] wrote: Build one of these, Chris, and you can raise MARTHA C's mast without help. The real problem with the Cal 20 is that in order to secure the pivot bolt in the mast step, you have to carry the mast aft until you're standing at the transom and holding it past the balance point, so the step wants to rise up. The second person is necessary to push down on the step and secure the pivot bolt. Don't think I haven't been tempted in the past few years when it's been hard to find a second person. There's a second problem too. Almost invariably, one of the shrouds or stays gets hooked under a cleat, under the sliding hatch, under the forward hatch, anywhere is is theoretically possible to get hooked, and a few that aren't, it will get stuck when the mast is 1/2 way up. The phenomenon calls out for a name. I can't name it for myself because there's already a Campbell's Law that I created (nothing will ever happen on time in court unless you are not there). Chris Campbell

On 6/25/2014 2:45 PM, Kris Jensen cr… [at] att.net [Cal_Boats] wrote: > > > I don't have a Cal 20 (I know, but it's spelled with a "K" so I'm > going for the exemption... Good description of your procedure. I'm going to print it for future reference. It doesn't fit my circumstances right now because (1) the Cal 20 has an outboard rudder & tiller that get in the way; (2) I do it all with the boat in the water, since I get a favorable rate from my launch guy for letting him slide the boat in the water and get out of there promptly. Then I go back to work and deal with mast raising at a future time after work. Plus it's better to fall off the boat and into the water than off the boat and the trailer onto pavement. I could maybe adapt your procedure by building a stern mast support that would let me slide the mast aft while standing forward, ending up near the mast step. It would be elevated above the rudder & tiller, as my current one is, but braced fore and aft and with some sort of rollers or slippery material where the mast lies. On the Cal 20, I secure only the aft lower shrouds. They are enough to hold the mast athwartship once it's up and also to serve as a backstay in the up position. Another advantage of the two-person method is that I can hand off the mast from the cockpit to a person up on the deck when it's 2/3 of the way up and when I cannot get it higher from the cockpit. I've actually made the step up while supporting the mast but it's hazardous so now we do the hand-off. I used to worry a lot about the strength of the aluminum casting that forms the mast step pivot. There is no athwartship support until the mast is almost vertical, when the aft lower shrouds get tight. Before then, keeping the mast on the center line requires being careful and on the strength of the pivot. These days I worry less because there have been no close calls or disasters, but it could happen. One year, on a buddy's boat, we had some mis-communication about whether the forestay had been secured. The person who was leaning on the mast to keep it up decided to walk forward to examine the situation, thinking the pin was in. It wasn't. The mast fell backward, landing on the bow pulpit of a powerboat behind us. There was a big noise. It was an interesting empirical test of the materials' strength. The mast did not bend (tiny ding along the sail slot); the aluminum pivot castings did not break; the bow pulpit was not damaged. Miracles occur. I have made a discussion of holding the mast carefully a part of the pre-raising talk. Chris Campbell > >