Largest mast taken down with an A frame.

[RumPunch]

Wise words.. I have a slightly smaller mast than the OP but when I drop mine I have a guy on the cabin roof facing backwards who straddles it as it drops so as to stop it swinging... (and if straddle and swinging in one sentance doesn't get the forum some new visitors I don't know what will)

It helps - but no would not stop it going sideways if it took a mind to do so

 

[Bilgediver]

Deleted as similar to another posting.

 

[geem]

Lots of staggeringly large boats drop their mast in this way on a regular basis to get under the bridges from the Swan River to the sea at Fremantle. A frame is created using spinnaker poles.
I raced an 11m boat and we berthed on the river but raced offshore. Exhausted before we even started racing!
There are certainly one of two 12m boats doing this.

Our main mast is super heavy and 17.5m long. It weighs about 400kg. The boat originally had an aframe on deck permanently fitted to the deck for lowering the mast. It's a Dutch boat. They have a lot of bridges