Boats with masts that can be lowered by hand?

It is very rare that you need to maintain the mast so why not open up choices and just bite the bullet if maintenance is required. Not needed to go up our mast for about 5 years.Even then there are always walls/locks etc.
 
Any other essentials on the list other than lowering the mast manually? For example, deep or shallow draft, do you want a trailer sailer, outboard or inboard, is standing headroom important, number of berths, modern or tradional, proper heads etc. oh and if you give an idea of your budget you might get some helpful pointers on here /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
done it myself lots of times - easy as pie. Its only old twins that are a problem /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

The tabernacle pivot point is at the same height as the shroud connection. There is a 6ft tube that fits into the base of the mast and acts as the A frame. It also has sideways stays to prevent swaying. I use the main sheets and genoa winch and easy as pie. shifting the mast forward is more difficult on your own, but not impossible (done that several times as well) I now have behind mast reefing, and suspect the extra weight might be a bit too much so dont bother any more.
 
My dad and I decided to drop the mast one sunny afternoon while she was dried out on the beach.

Never, ever again!

Everything was looking good until the mast hit 45° and the balance left our favour and entered a gravity controlled fall. My job was to walk the mast down, an attempt to stop it swaying and damaging the tabernacle. I thought something was going to break and not the mast, chest, arms, legs all expected to be smashed.

Ok, a little exaggeration, but I just don't think you can say any cruising mast of 30ft+ falls into the category of being able to be stepped by hand.

Never again!
 
Look for a Hunter Liberty. Very easy to raise or lower masts, can even be done afloat, and no stays to worry about. Easy boat to sail for those not as young as they used to be also.

Safe sailing

Sparkie
 
I do my 32 ft mast quite regularly (bloomin Nasa windcups!) with just 2 of us. Needs 3 to get it back up safely though 2 can do it at a pinch.

Much easier since I fitted a Tabernacle. I put the boat alongside a jetty, run a line from the jib halyard about 30 feet ahead of the boat. This takes all the load while the man on deck guides the spar down.

3rd man on raising helps to 'start' the spar, then runs round freeing the rigging as it catches on things while the mast rises, then guides the jib roller in to position for securing. The higher the jetty the easier this all is!

Used to be able to do it singlehanded with a 20ft trailer sailer. An A frame took the forestay up enough for the trailer winch to be able to raise and lower the mast with ease while the boat was on the trailer. I have seen the same thing with an old boom cut to the distance from the mast to the forestay fitting, and stayed back to the chain lates to keep it steady. A winch (or a couple of blokes tail on) to the end of the boom, and the whole thing rises gracefully into position. (Usually! /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif)
 
I can raise and lower the mast of my Parker 21 by hand and I have done it single-handed a couple of times.

But the palaver of getting all the tensions back to what they should be, persuades me to use a sort of webbing rope ladder (ebay - where else!) which saves that trouble. I seem to be forever losing halyards and needing to rethread. Gravity works better for that on a vertical mast.

I am well past my three-score and ten and too heavy for the crew to fancy winching me up. The ladder is quite good once it's untangled and the view from the top is (nearly) worth it.

I am gradually getting more careful with halyards though. Even with the mast down I don't think I could reach the wind things from the dinghy and the idea of a stepladder in a rubber duck seems a bit hairy?
 
Sorry to disagree, The Dutch are masters at building boats with easy to step masts, Fosca is a 32'er with a very heavy section ally mast, she came with a tabernacle as well as an A frame. Have raised and lowered the mast every winter for 3 yrs I can find no fault with the system. Time taken approx 2 hrs, (sails removed). Mike.
 
PBO has had articles in the past showing the construction of lowering frames which could be useful.
From unpleasant experiences I know that the lowering gets much more difficult as the mast passes 45 degrees on the way down. It's very easy to get caught out thinking at 70 degrees that its easy peasy.
Even on a little 16 ft boat the crash as the mast falls is very frightening and destructive.
 
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