Mast lowering some pictures.

[William_H]

The subject often comes up. I was invited to join the fun this morning on Brian's new to him boat the Joly Roger in moving it from Fremantle Sailing Club to East Fremantle Yacht Club. This involves traversing under 3 bridges hence mast lowering.
Jolly Roger is a Viking 30 ft mast head rig. The deck stepped mast has a pivot.
The cap shrouds go to chain plates via purpose built solid extensions seen in second photo which are braced forward with rope to ensure the cap shroud pivots in a line with mast pivot hence stays stay tight as mast pivots down.
2 spinnacker poles were used as brace for the 5 purchase tackle going to a jib halyard firmly cleated. as seen in first pix. The poles pivot in rings welded to flat plate bolted to deck aprox. ajacent to the mast
The mast was rested in an A frame at the transom which in our case could have been a metre higher.
The boom was removed. The tackle tightened until forestay was slack enough to remove the clevis pin a the deck. A tug on the backstay and down she came no probs.
It was hauled up again barely needing the aid of a winch. Less than 5 purchase and using the winch would have been better. (faster)
All done while under way.
Granted it is a little more difficult to remove the mast to lay on the deck. That takes a bit more muscle from this stage. olewill

 

[Lakesailor]

Pity about the weather.

I bet you could do without those bridges.

 

[AIDY]

yes nice pix's. as lakey said shame about the weather and having to wear shorts this time of year /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Talbot]

The use of the solid extensions to the cap shrouds in order to keep the pivot point of the shrouds at the same point as the pivot point of the mast is worthy of special emphasis, and is a major aid to the safety of this method. It enables these shrouds to remain relatively tight and prevents any sideways movement of the mast during the raising lowering process.

My boat has solid stainless braced so that there is no movement in this piece, if you use the system shown in the photos, you will note in one of the photos that there is a rope tied to the top of each extension in order to prevent any fwd or aft movement of the solid extension, which would make the shrouds go slack and thus allow sideways movement of the mast. The A frame also helps to prevent this sideways movement, but not enough to be able to just use an A frame while moveing.

nice photos!!!!!!

 

[William_H]

Thanks Talbot you p[ut it very well. In fact the ropes to brace the rigid extensions proved not tight enough. Any slackness or stretch here permits mast movement sideways while in transit from vertical to the crutch. Wire would be better or as you say a permanent rigid support even better.
Of course this doesn't work so well on a typical fractional rig.

Becoming more popular now are the solid rods (spin poles) running up the sail track on a car. I will try to get pix of this system working.
Yes 36 max today it may be too hot for sailing but we have to do it.

olewill

 

[Hardley]

Hi Will,
As you may recall I have a purpose designed A frame for lowering my 30ft fractional mast, very useful as shooting bridges is all part of sailing on the Norfolk Broads.
I have found a simple way, that helps keep the mast in line whilst being lowered;
Take a mooring line, with an eye splice in one end, pass line around shrouds and mast, at around 6 ft up from mast heel, pass through the eye splice, pull tight and lead back to cockpit, start lowering the mast, at the same time keeping the mooring line tight. This keeps the shrouds tight.
Using this method I can lower mast single handed, whilst under way.
Norm

 

[Talbot]

[ QUOTE ]
36 max today it may be too hot for sailing but we have to do it.

[/ QUOTE ]

"Slip, Slap,Slop"

I will try to feel sorry for you while I gaze at the snow

 

[tyce]

[ QUOTE ]
Hi Will,
As you may recall I have a purpose designed A frame for lowering my 30ft fractional mast, very useful as shooting bridges is all part of sailing on the Norfolk Broads.
I have found a simple way, that helps keep the mast in line whilst being lowered;
Take a mooring line, with an eye splice in one end, pass line around shrouds and mast, at around 6 ft up from mast heel, pass through the eye splice, pull tight and lead back to cockpit, start lowering the mast, at the same time keeping the mooring line tight. This keeps the shrouds tight.
Using this method I can lower mast single handed, whilst under way.
Norm

[/ QUOTE ]


what a clever but simple idea, i have (as yet untested) used thick ply bolted to my toerails and extended up to the height of the tabernacle pivot point i was then going to run a rope from the end of each sprreader down to the ply.
but my concern is the ply may be a bit to flexy so i will set this up as a back up system

 

[Ben Long]

The subject often comes up. I was invited to join the fun this morning on Brian's new to him boat the Joly Roger in moving it from Fremantle Sailing Club to East Fremantle Yacht Club. This involves traversing under 3 bridges hence mast lowering.
Jolly Roger is a Viking 30 ft mast head rig. The deck stepped mast has a pivot.
The cap shrouds go to chain plates via purpose built solid extensions seen in second photo which are braced forward with rope to ensure the cap shroud pivots in a line with mast pivot hence stays stay tight as mast pivots down.
2 spinnacker poles were used as brace for the 5 purchase tackle going to a jib halyard firmly cleated. as seen in first pix. The poles pivot in rings welded to flat plate bolted to deck aprox. ajacent to the mast
The mast was rested in an A frame at the transom which in our case could have been a metre higher.
The boom was removed. The tackle tightened until forestay was slack enough to remove the clevis pin a the deck. A tug on the backstay and down she came no probs.
It was hauled up again barely needing the aid of a winch. Less than 5 purchase and using the winch would have been better. (faster)
All done while under way.
Granted it is a little more difficult to remove the mast to lay on the deck. That takes a bit more muscle from this stage. olewill

Hi William
New here and know this is an old post
Though I think I may have bought this boat and am moving it from flying squadron to Mandurah so in need of mast lowering.
Any info would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

 

[Daydream believer]

I followed a 38 ft Dutch yacht (until the bridge) & he had a purpose built "A" frame as well as shroud extensions on each side deck. The mast base was pivoted. He had the sails on the boom & jib furled on the furler, as he was motoring. When he got to the bridge he removed a pin in the top of the "A" & whilst helming he approached the bridge under power. The anchor winch lowered the mast enough to go under the bridge. It went to an angle equal to the height of the "A" frame in the vertical position. Not totally down.

Once through he set the winch to pull the mast up again & then went forward to engage the pin on the "A" frame. There was no side slop. He only reduced speed to about 2-3 knots & kept going.

 

[William_H]

Hi William
New here and know this is an old post
Though I think I may have bought this boat and am moving it from flying squadron to Mandurah so in need of mast lowering.
Any info would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

Hello Ben Congratulations on your new boat. No I don't think it is Jolly Roger as it lives at EFYC and I don't think Brian wants to sell.
Anyway you need a tackle 4 purchase and around 35 metres of rope. It is connected between the forestay disconnected and the bow fitting. (back to winch) Alternatively and also good if you have a furling jib use the spin halyard firmly locked off on the mast to tackle to bow fitting. You need 2 spin poles. Hopefully there are some rings set in the side decks so the poles extend from the rings to the forestay to tackle connection. The spin poles make an A frame arrangement which improves the pull of the tackle as mast gets lower than 45 degrees.
You need a crutch mounted at the transom. Many people use 2 bits of wood with a bolt through to make a vee at the top. This needs to be quite long wood about 3 metres long. This will support the mast when it is down. Down to about 30 degrees from horizontal is good. Low enough to go under the bridges not so low that it is hard work raising the mast again. Bridge clearance I think is about 22ft. (check)
Hopefully at the bottom of the cap shrouds you have a solid section of chain plate extending up to the level of the mast pivot. This usually has to be stayed forward to keep it vertical even when stay pull is well aft. Mast half down. cap shroud must be kept tight from vertical to near horizontal. If you don't have a solid section of chain plate extension you can just fit a cable clamp to the stay about level with mast pivot and attach a tackle to this point to the deck well forward. (on each side) Youwan the mast kept central all the way down using the cap stays.
Make sure mast base pivot is in good condition especially attached to deck. There may be some lifting force if mast is top heavy over stern.
You may have difficulty getting forestay disconnected from bow and even more difficulty getting it reconnected. A friend has just made a longish like marlin spike with sharp tapered tip to substitute for clevis pin so easier to get in.
Obviously set up the gear and try it out while on mooring. Have at least 2 more helpers . Mast loads go from no load at vertical to very heavy when down so be careful. Back stay obviously loose. You will need to pull the backstay to start it coming down. Don't try to skimp on anything. good luck ol'will