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old man raising mast

Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 3:32 am
by hons221
Hi, I have a 1991 Mac and am having a lot of problems raising the mast due to my old age. Has anyone come up with a easier way for a old man to raise the mast. Thanks Peter

Re: old man raising mast

Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 4:24 am
by bastonjock
Hi Peter

You could try having an extended winch handle made,say double the lenght of the exsisting one,this will encrease the leverage a great deal and make the winching process a lot easier,just be carefull on not applying to much force

hope this helps

matt

Re: old man raising mast

Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 9:52 pm
by johnnyonspot
You might try constructing a gin pole, which is used for raising the mast with little effort. You also might be able to backfit the 26M Mast Raising System (MRS), which is really just a fancy gin pole, to work on your classic with a little ingenuity. If you go this route, and even if you don't, it might also be wise to rig up some baby stays to keep the mast from swaying from side to side when you're raising it.

Re: old man raising mast

Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2008 1:06 pm
by Pete
I am in the process of adding baby stays to my mast. I found that I can raise and lower the mast by myself if i can keep it centered. i use the jib sheet to pull the mast up. I then attach the jib sheet to the bow cleat to hold the mast up. Then I step on the jib sheet to get that last bit so I can get the pin in on the forward stay.

I am going to add rope guides to the mast and deck for the baby stays. McMaster-Carr has them in 316ss for $1.67 for 3/8 rope (8860T81), which should be plenty strong. The guides mounted to the deck just need to be in line with the mast bolt so everything hinges around the same axis. My only dilemma is where to add the rope guides to the mast. i want to get it right the first time. I would hate to have them in place and then find out they are in the way and have to move them leaving a bunch of extra holes in otherwise perfect 30 year old mast.

Pete

Re: old man raising mast

Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2008 1:20 pm
by Scott
Duane posted some years ago regarding mast raising with the winces. Quite informative. Baby stays and a gin pole with the aid of the winch makes it fairly easy and safe.

I dont remember if Duane was the original author or just replying.

Try this

Or this

Or this

Re: old man raising mast

Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2008 2:32 pm
by skeedaddy
I wrestled with this a few months back. I bought a 92 Mac 26 this summer and actually dropped my mast to the port side once it was down with only about 15 degrees to go. It cost me the little tangs at the bottom of my mast step pole. Thankfully, those are cheap to buy.

Anyway, I have two little harken stainless eye straps on my deck that are roughly a beam the mast bolt. I have average size blocks snap shackled to those eye straps. I also have a Mast Eye about eight feet up from the deck. If you looked at the Ronstan Mast Eye Pad on the West Marine website, you'd have a pretty good idea of what I'm talking about. I don't know if this is standard equipment or if this was a previous owner add on. There is another one just like it about knee high from the deck.

See if you can imagine this. If not, let me know and I'll try to email a photo.

My main and jib halyards have snap shackles on them which are clipped to the mast eye at knee level. Then, the halyards run up along the mast and to their respective pulleys. The halyards then run back down the mast through the mast eye at 8 feet. If you think about it, the halyards always run down the mast, so it does me no harm to let the downward running line remain inside that mast eye at eight feet at all times. I never had to remove them from there. The end of the halyard with the snap shackle has to run free of that eye or it wouldn't be able to lift the jib or main.

Anyway, from the eye at eight feet, my halyards run down to the deck and through the blocks attached to the eye straps. From there, they run back twice around my winches and then through a clete.

Thus, my halyards temporarily act as my baby stays. (I also tighten them when driving down the highway to help keep the mast from dumping overboard on the highway. It beats bunjee cords.)

My topping lift is a heavy duty rope with a snap shackle at either end. For mast raising, I leave one end shackled to the mast eye at knee level and run the other end to my step pole.

So, I stand in the cockpit, put the mast on my shoulder and start pulling the line on the step pole.

Unfortunately, our boats are old enough not to have the babystays that the new ones come with.

I'm not saying this system is the best. I'm just saying that it's easier and I feel safer than self stepping the mast on my Hobie 16.

I'll probably set the boat up this weekend in the yard to do some work on my engine as it crapped out last Friday. If you'd like, we can discuss over the phone or I can try to email you some photos next week.

Re: old man raising mast

Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2008 2:50 pm
by Scott
One thing I am not seeing is mention of the fact that the main tackle lends great mechanical advantage to the process. The winches are aditional over and above.

this pic is the gin pole just before mast raising. I dont use th winces and have the tackle moounted upside down. I would imagine you would need to mount it right side up to run the tag end back to the winches.
Image

I use the furler line to pull the jib and drum forward as I raise the mast. Better view of the tackle in this shot.

Image

The whole rig raised. I got chewed out for this pick because I didnt have the main tackle cleated off as a saftey measure. This is with the jib Halyard as the raiser. After I put on a spinnaker halyard I used that instead. You can just make out the baby stays in this pic.

Image

Re: old man raising mast

Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2008 3:04 am
by Kelly Hanson East
You can search on Poor Mans Mast Raising system under my alter ego 'Catigale'

I think I described how you can raise the mast with standard tackle singlehanded. I still lift the mast by hand on my :macx:

Re: old man raising mast

Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2008 6:51 am
by skeedaddy
So that's what baby stays look like! Sweet! Now, if only I had travelers for my jib. DOH :?

In case there is a miscommunication, I don't use the winch for raising the mast. When using my main and jib halyards as babystays, I wrap them around the appropriate winch near the cockpit and then clete them as they are holding the mast from falling over during the raising process.

I have a set of blocks on the step pole and manually rull the line to raise the mast. Once the mast is up, I clete the line coming from the step pole to hold the mast until I can fasten the forward stay (or in my case, the roller furler).

Re: old man raising mast

Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2008 1:24 pm
by mikelinmon
Your local dealer can adapt the current mast raiser to fit your boat. It is only $135 plus a little in extra parts for the adaption. If near Marina del Rey, we'll do it for you. If your local dealer can't, we'll tell him how to.
MIke Inmon

Re: old man raising mast

Posted: Thu Nov 20, 2008 8:51 am
by noahvale
I made a very simple A-frame for my V25. I use a block and tackle. It couldn't be easier. I have some pictures of it here: http://members.cox.net/lafishing/

Re: old man raising mast

Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2008 12:06 pm
by goddardw
Blue Water Yacht in Seattle can provide the Mac mast raising kit for $135 plus shipping. This comes with the baby guys and a good brake winch. It is shown on their web site http://www.bwyachts.com/