back mast support while trailering

[Guest]

what is a good way to support the back of the mast when traveling. I now have a board the lay across the transcom. It works, but it leaves a lot of dirt and marks on the boat.

Gary (fishhead-at-cableone.net)

[Guest]

I had a post that attached to the cross board with bungee cords that the previous owner of my boat set up. I got sick of rigging it and used a 2x4 and some pintels to hook a new vertical support where the rudder connects to the boat. I just copied the size and spacing of the rudder. A couple pieces of wood and some foam glued on to make a box on top of the post to pad and support the mast. Finally a bungee hooks over the top to hold down the mast. It is simple, quick and strong enough to do the job.

Barry (kellbtl-at-aol.com)

[Guest]

my boat came with a wooden gallows? it sits across the beam of the boat near the transom. both the mast and the boom rest on it. don't know if D&R sells it or not. you could probably fabricate your own, although i don't know that i could.

chad (cegillis-at-naplesnews.com)

[Peter McMinn]

Chad, I'm considering building somthing like what you describe. Can you tell us a little more about the shape, length of the "gallows", and how the mast rides in it?

[Guest]

it works really well, actually. it's basically a board that rides from coaming to coaming at the aft cleats. it has wooden brackets that fit over the coaming, buffered by carpet, and two brackets on the top where the mast and boom sit. it also has the trailer lights and license plate mounted to it, which helps keep the lights out of saltwater while launching. there's a rope that fits through a hole on the top and a wooden cleat. the rope is used to tie the rig down. the gallows is tied to each of the rear cleats. seems like it was a factory set-up, although i haven't seen any other DS IIs with that set-up. i don't have a digital camera but i could shoot photos and mail them to you with the specs.

chad (cegillis-at-naplesnews.com)

[Guest]

Chad, that set-up is pure custom fabrication. The stock option "trailering package" that O'Day offered had a mast support that hooked to the rudder gudgeons in place of the rudder. Your set-up would be worth sketching up for this web-site.

Rod Johnson, "SUNBIRD" (rjohnson24-at-juno.com)

[Guest]

Found these photos somewhere - do not remember where - but they show a similiar stowing method for spars.
<a href="http://www.aisol.com/daysailer/index.html">Photos</a>
-Ron

RJ Swenson (rswenson-at-aisol.com)