Carrying a mast on deck; the French Canals

[pqrtrmn]

Does anyone have any advice on the best way to carry a mast on deck through European waterways?
I have a Centaur and want to rig up a series of "A" frames to hold the mast for the journey but I'm not sure of the best design.

 

[clyst]

Why not get your mast transported by road ?? Most" mast lowering "yards organise multi mast loads by lorry down to your destination .

 

[Sea Devil]

I have always carried the mast on deck - the X frame fore and aft works well.. You need a proper strong bolt to go through the two legs of the X and the right size drill bit so you can adjust the height of the bolt hole...

lashing of some sort to hold the mast in the X and the X in position tied to the pulpit and the push-pit.

Normally I use the sail bags midships to support the centre of the mast and stop it bending.

Michael

 

[chrisc]

depending on length of mast/boat ,it can be handy to have the mast on-board ,good for supporting sunshade /raincover.A simple X frame at rear and support the front on the pulpit with some sort simple support in centre.

 

[michael_w]

Make sure you have it a goodly height off the deck, makes it so much easier to walk about and see where you are going.

 

[pqrtrmn]

Thanks for the suggestions/advice, I'll mock some "X"'s up and see how they look, i'm imagining keeping the height the same all along the length is a little tricky, but sail bags and padding sound like a good system.

 

[michael_w]

Another tip is to get hold of old truck inner tubes. Cut into long strips thay are very handy for packing the mast and keeping all the rigging under control. Want a bit more padding? Just wrap the rubber where it is needed.

 

[guernseyman]

What sort of tabernacle have you got? I use the mast-retaining bolt holes to bolt on a couple of vertical timber extensions. A threaded rod bolt through the extensions supports the mast, with a length of plastic hose for protection. An X-frame lashed to the pushpit supports the after end.

 

[jerryat]

We've done the trip (Uk-Med) three times and do not recommend an 'X' frame at the bow, but a level bit of timber fixed to the (braced) pulpit with foam rubber or similar to protect the mast.

We then tie the mast with loops from each end of this support to allow lateral movement of the mast.

The reason is that, sooner or later, your boat will swing into the lock wall and put stress on the mast if it can't move. Obviously you'll strip off any Windex/anemometer/tri-light etc and wrap some foam rubber round the end, or use a mini car tyre.

The above method allows (in our case anyway) the mast to skid sideways to the limit of the relevent loop so absorbing the vast majority of any stress.

An 'X' frame aft is fine but should be high enough (as mentioned earlier) to allow free movement underneath. In our case this means the mast slopes down from aft to forward, but doesn't get in the way. In fact, we remove all the rigging and spreaders, so just have the tube in the way, but you may not wish to do this, even though it makes movement about the boat far easier and safer.

I would definitely recommend taking your mast with you if only for peace of mind and to save cash. Three people we met over the years had had damage of varying degrees occur when their masts were transported by road and were fed up with all the arguements that ensued as to who was to blame - carrier, crane driver, marina etc etc.

It's a fantastic trip by the way, so take it slow and easy and have a great time.

 

[chasroberts]

Agree with the replies that a simple X frame (or 2 or 3 of them) is just not enough to securely store your mast.The main problem with these is that believe it or not there can be a fair bit of chop on the river sections, especially the Loire up to Paris and all of the Rhone/Saone.

We encountered 1m waves on the south of the Rhone during strong winds and we had far beefier frames than X frames made up. With every bit of spare rope on the boat (and I had a few!) lashed to the mast we still couldn't stop all the fore and aft movement of the mast. When hit by the wake of a passing peniche (big river barge) the lateral movement was also a bit scary.

For all that agree totallly with taking your mast with, you just have to make very secure frames braced fore and aft as well as laterally and lots and lots of bits of string! In addition the mast makes a great support for a good cockpit tent as it can get a bit warm.

Good luck with the trip, it's a fantastic way to get to the Med.

Feel free to pm me if there's anything else I can help with.

Regards

Chas

 

[BurnitBlue]

I always carry my mast on deck. No problem. I leave for another transit just as soon as the weather gives me a comfortable crossing to Lubeck 200 miles away. I will not use X frames this time because I want to keep the mast low, so a T-bar across the pulpit and a square contraption aft.

A folkboat rolls easy and it has a long mast relative to the OAL so I dare not have the mast too high so I can duck under it. So I have decided to have it at deck level so I can step over it.

 

[pqrtrmn]

Thanks for the wealth of replies, I'm planning on putting it all together this weekend so we'll see how it goes. I'm getting the idea that it needs to be mighty sturdy.