Stepping a one piece mast

[GreenLake]

If the design were to include a "stop" on the far side of the cuddy opening, then there might not be a need for a "clamp".

Here is how this works on my boat. My sleeve is low enough that as soon as the mast is angled, the foot of the mast hits the cuddy opening. That prevents the mast from sliding along the sleeve until it's nearly vertical.

On my boat, unless the mast is very closely to vertical, it does not slide into the cuddy opening. Therefore, it's easy to manage the transition between tipping up the mast and lowering it into the cuddy opening.

Originally I had in my design a "pin" to arrest the mast in the sleeve, but I discovered that I didn't need it.

[Hodmi]

I agree there is room for improvement. I considered the pin idea, but I was worried about getting it out with the weight of the mast resting on it.

I'd like to do it single handed. I'm thinking about a quick release for the opening that I could trip with one hand or my foot...a good winter engineering project

[GreenLake]

If you read my post carefully, I'm trying to explain to you that it should be possible to work this whole operation without an actual "release" because the cuddy hole should be a good tight fit for the mast, and if it is, the mast won't go down it, unless it's fairly well lined up. (i.e. in final vertical position).

Your hinge has the mast a bit off the deck, so initially when you start pulling it could slide simply forward. I would solve that by incorporating something that makes a simple vertical surface on the forward side of the opening, i.e. opposite the hinge.

You'd initially pull the mast against that, but since it's simply flat, the foot can slide down as the angle of the hinge increases. The mast won't get away from you, even though you'd have neither a pin nor a clamp. In my case, with a flatter hinge, the lip of the cuddy opening is enough, the mast foot engages with it at very small angles of tilt, essentially right away. You may need to build it up a bit, to get something equivalent.

Have fun engineering!

[joehalsted]

"Scored' a 1974 DS II 'Barn Find' - unused since about '77 as prior owners couldn't get the mast up.

After dancing about the cabintop holding a 21' pole in the air I figured there had to be a better way. Ordered a Tabernacle and decided I didn't want to hack the mast in half.

So I made a 'shoe' that fits around the mast hole - with a metal 'lip'. (I'd post a PIX but can't copy & paste it here). Then I added 2 24" removable shroud extenders.

Carrying an X-light 8' aluminum ladder in the boat - EZ to prop the mast into the shoe - raise far as I can from the cockpit - Partner on main halyard extension line and the stay extenders hold it in place while I leap to the cabin top, swing the mast to vertical (held by shroud extenders) and lower it thru the hole.

Super EZ and fast. And the Shroud Extenders hold it upright (with the base in the 'shoe') while it's lowered for removal too.

Joe in Ramona

[GreenLake]

Joe,

welcome to the forum.

Your "shoe" sounds like an interesting idea. We would like to see your pictures, of course. There are two ways to do that: upload them on a picture-sharing site and then use the "img" tag to link them or go to the Photos section, where you will find your personal gallery. After resizing your image to fit the size and storage size restrictions for this site, uploading is easy.

For more instructions, look under the "website info" section of this forum, there's a thread on this question.

Good luck!

[joehalsted]

You can see PIX of my "Mast Shoe' on my 'Gallery'

[joehalsted]

Didn't want to cut the mast and add a tabernacle so I made a 'Mast Jig' that neatly sits on the mast hole and holds the base in place while I push 'er up with stalwart crew steadying with long line forward to main halyard. Also added removable side stay extenders to keep in in line. Now very easy to raise & drop mast. e-mail joe@servusgov.com for pix of the easy to make 'Mast Jig'.

[GreenLake]

Why don't you simply post a picture here?

In the meantime, my version of a mast-raising gizmo
can be found here.
(Mine by ownership, not by design - the kudo's go to an unknown previous owner).

[Baysailer]

Joe,

I still use the lift and drop method and so far works pretty well for me as long as I do it alone, help doesn't help for me there. A lot of practice at first at home so I didn't have issues at crowded boat launches in an off camber position. I did drill a 3/4 - 1" hole a few inches behind the mast collar to help me sight it in, got that tip here. Tried a few other methods but I didn't like the setup or it didn't really make life easier for me. Latest was a rig similar to one I saw online for a JY15 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKevg8J_uJg. Yours looks similar and probably works well I know my mock up almost ended badly.

[Breakin Wind]

I've been using my mast raising system for a couple years now and I'm so pleased with it I have to chime in on this topic!

I wanted a mast raising/lowering system that:

1 could be used single-handed by a decripit old man
2 could be used on the trailer or on the water
3 would allow a hinge to be above the boom and mainsail,
4 allow storing the boom and mainsail there
5 didn't have cumbersome parts that needed to be attached
6 could be deployed in minimum time

I also wanted a bow pulpit for safety and decided to integrate the pulpit with the mast raiser if possible. Here's what I came up with, an "A" frame as part of a pulpit...

[thumb=895][thumb=892]

The pulpit is made of a 7/8" dia stainless tube inside a 1" dia thinwall tube with a 1/4-20 bolt setting the length. Aluminum should work as well, and even a single 8 ft long tube could work, although mine are 9.5 ft long. The two pulpit arms are hinged just forward of the chainplates and both attach to the ends of a short tube athwartships above the bow. This tube has a 1/4-20 female connecter inside it and a bolt goes through each long tube and into the short tube and threads into the connecter. A piece of wood attaches to the short tube which protects the spinnaker from the exposed bolt heads and tube ends, and adds a bit of structure to the structure. On the outside of the short tube are two 7/8" pipe "T's" which attach to two vertical stantions. The connection of the "T's" to the stantions does not have the set-crews installed so the "A" frame (the 9.5 ft tubes and the short tube) may be easily removed from the stantions and deployed to give a leverage arm on the mast. There is a 4::1 block and tackle with a cam cleat from the short tube to the bow.

The mast hinge is not the normal Dwyer tabernackle, I destroyed two of them due to the hinge being 26" above the partners and so had to design something stronger...

[thumb=1084]

This tabarnackle retains the mast's strength and bending modality and doesn't break or bend if the mast drops by accident (but good luck with your Windex).

I have a boom gallows that receives the boom and mast when it's down (the mast sticks out over the transom quite a bit so I tie an orange PFD to the end). I've replaced the grizzled old wire cable forestay with Dyneema. I release the "A" frame purchase and stantion connections with a tug and pull it up vertical, then attach the forestay to the short tube. Pulling on the purchase raises the mast. It's about four 3' to 4' pulls, then I insert the safety bolt in the hinge which means the mast is being held up by it's step and the partners, the shrouds will tighten on a last short pull on the purchase. I let the "A" frame down and catch the stantions in the "T"'s. Done. I'd say that's about 2 minutes and just as fast to lower it.

There are several options from there: You can dial in the "A" frame connection locations and be done or you can deploy a furler or jib and release the purchase as I do when flying my UPS, otherwise I have to furl on each tack/jib.

Hi Jay - are you on the forum this winter or building more robots?

I managed to mess up my shoulder somehow this past fall, and expected it to heal over the winter but with our mountains of snow, it doesn't seem to be getting rested enough to make the progress I was hoping for. Therefore in anticipation of an eventual spring (43 days, 20 some odd hours), I'm starting to think about various alternatives for raising my mast that won't require two arms overhead (as much).
It took me a while to search and find this post where you explained your A Frame very well and I wanted to reference here to it to get it back toward the top of my stack so I could find it again over the next weeks.

1. You've mentioned you used SS tubing but you felt aluminum would work as well. Being on a freshwater lake, for weight and workability, aluminum would be my preference but I'm curious if you've had any experiences that would cause you to retract that suggestion?

2. What are you using for a block ratio for pulling the A frame down, and is it attached to your sprit, boweye, chainplate?

3. Any thoughts or problems with the A frame hinge points? Do they need special reinforcement?

Thanks for any recent experience updates if you happen to see this.

- Scott

[jdoorly]

Hi Scott, Sorry I didn't see this earlier but you called it right: This is my first weekend off this year due to mentoring a high school robotics team. This year we are using the big exercise balls in a game similar to basketball. I designed the shooter module so I got to learn all about catapult trajectories. Fun stuff!!

Hope your shoulder mends quickly!!!

The pics, which are obviously dated by the "thumbs" syntax, and the description are many revs ago. The foredeck arrangement now features a dyneema forestay at the tip of the cedar instead of oak extended by 6 inches bowsprit. Either the asymetric spinnaker furler or jib furler may be deployed inside the forestay (allowing tacking or jibing without impediment). The height of the forestay tang on the mast is no longer a worrysome 18" above the hounds. The 2 halyard blocks are just below the hounds.

Also, that 9 pound claw anchor hanging on the sprit hasn't seen the sun in some years. I couldn't get it to deploy reliably and it was too much weight to have on the bow. I now use a square bucket with the rode payed into it and the 4 pound Danforth clone and 6 feet of chain on top. I keep it in the cockpit for instant use then walk the rode forward to the chock and cleat when I'm ready to.

I am planning on replacing my stainless tubes with aluminum this year. I need to find 2 sizes that can 'telescope' to make my 9.5' length. The elbow fittings, "T"'s, etc., don't come in aluminum and are expensive (for me). Last year I did try to make a nice rounded pulpit front from aluminum but it came out crappy cause I didn't have the exact right pipe bending tool (I did fill the tube with pounded sand though). This year my shop has a dandy new tube bender!

The hinge of the "A" frame is located just forward of the chainplates.
http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=64097&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&storeId=11151&storeNum=50821&subdeptNum=50837&classNum=50841#.UwqoiflSiag

The tube is capped with eye which fits in the hinge and is bolted through the deck with fender washers.
http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=44487&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&storeId=11151&storeNum=50692&subdeptNum=50711&classNum=50712#.Uwqn3_lSiag
You will want to align the hinge with the tubing else the eye cap and hinge may wear.

The "A" frame purchase is 4 to 1, these blocks and tackle are also used as the forestay tightener. I think it's 3/8" diameter line. The forestay attaches to it's mast tang and to the rounded pulpit front, the purchase attaches to the rounded pulpit front and a through bolted eye (http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=24617&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&storeId=11151&storeNum=50045&subdeptNum=50046&classNum=50053#.UwqqWPlSiag) on the tip of the bowsprit. The fiddle block, cam cleat, and the rope tail are attached to an eye on the bow pulpit. The spinnaker furler is attached to an eye 6" aft of the forestay eye. The jib eye is attached in the normal place except 2 inches higher due to the sprit thickness.

Sorry, no new pics yet, but at least these should work!