JumbleDuck
Well-Known Member
You can reduce that enormously by wrapping a couple of halyards round the mast a couple of times, to act like the strakes on chimneys:
Mast up on the hard
- Thread starter Yellow Ballad
- Start date
You can reduce that enormously by wrapping a couple of halyards round the mast a couple of times, to act like the strakes on chimneys:
macd
Well-Known Member
An earthquake gives noticeably more shaking, in my experience.
vyv_cox
Well-Known Member
You can reduce that enormously by wrapping a couple of halyards round the mast a couple of times, to act like the strakes on chimneys:
Unfortunately the spreaders prevent this. I wrap the mast below the spreaders but the effect is limited.
CAPTAIN FANTASTIC
Well-Known Member
It was good seeing at the club the other day.
I never take the mast down unless I need to do work on it. I make sure that the tension on the standing rigging is correct, I check the tesion using a rigging gauge; if the rigging is loose, the mast will vibrate which can result to fatique. Also, in my opinion, is more likely to damage the mast and the rigging by lowering and raising it than by leaving it up.
I never take the mast down unless I need to do work on it. I make sure that the tension on the standing rigging is correct, I check the tesion using a rigging gauge; if the rigging is loose, the mast will vibrate which can result to fatique. Also, in my opinion, is more likely to damage the mast and the rigging by lowering and raising it than by leaving it up.
yoda
Well-Known Member
I don't see a problem with leaving the mast up however I would take a few precautions. If you have a headstay foil wrap a halyard round it as experience would suggest that this is a major cause of vibration. Vibration can also cause the boat and cradle to move relative to each other and has been the cause of yachts being blown over so wedging the keel into the bottom of the cradle and lashing the legs to the boat to prevent movement fore and aft (stopping them 'walking') will help prevent any problems. None of this costs any money and is easier than taking the mast down. We lift over 30 yachts every winter and insist on this regime which to date (that's done it!!) has been successful in preventing problems.
Yoda
Yoda
Daydream believer
Well-Known Member
.Apart from the birthday, I wonder why you need to be with the wife.
Surely you are not one of those poor souls who has to go to the supermarket with her every saturday. !!!!!!!
I think the first thing you need to do is to sort the marriage issue out a bit sharpish.:encouragement:
Then just go & sort the mast out when you need to.
Surely you are not one of those poor souls who has to go to the supermarket with her every saturday. !!!!!!!
I think the first thing you need to do is to sort the marriage issue out a bit sharpish.:encouragement:
Then just go & sort the mast out when you need to.
pagoda
Well-Known Member
Foil vibration is mostly stopped by coiling the genoa halyard round it multiple times. You also mitigate slackening the joining elements in your foil. Screws or connectors - even with the proper loctite etc can loosen. Worth avoiding.
dunedin
Well-Known Member
That would be my thinking also. And rather than “resting” the rigging by removing, the slackening, bending and retensioning seems much more likely to damage rigging than leaving in situ.
But equally could argue the same applies to the rest of the boat. Leave afloat as designed, rather than in a cradle which places more point stresses on the hull.
Praxinoscope
Well-Known Member
I don’t understand the concept that dropping the mast and checking the rigging (which includes freash water washing to clear the salt build-up) is likely to cause more damage than leaving it up 365days a year for an indefinite number of years and open to all conditons during the Winter.
I assume you service your engine and perhaps valet your sails, service your winches, heads, check and service if necessary all other parts of your boat, if you don’t then I would rather not sail on your boat.
The mast, standing rigging and running rigging all get stressed during the season and it seems sensible to me to inspect clean and service these as part of the boats power source, maybe not dropping the mast every Winter but every other year just seems to make sense.
It’s a lot easier to service the mast top sheaves with the mast down than slung up top in a bosuns chair.
I assume you service your engine and perhaps valet your sails, service your winches, heads, check and service if necessary all other parts of your boat, if you don’t then I would rather not sail on your boat.
The mast, standing rigging and running rigging all get stressed during the season and it seems sensible to me to inspect clean and service these as part of the boats power source, maybe not dropping the mast every Winter but every other year just seems to make sense.
It’s a lot easier to service the mast top sheaves with the mast down than slung up top in a bosuns chair.
vyv_cox
Well-Known Member
I have had my masthead wind indicator destroyed when the mast was being removed. I have seen on other boats - rigging screws bent, forestay foil bent, steaming light smashed. Once on the ground I have known various thefts of antennas, lights, odd bolts, shackles and fittings. I have seen a mast destroyed when a fork lift truck backed into it.
Quandary
Well-Known Member
All the masts in our yard come down every year (about 20 boats of various sizes) and are stripped, serviced, waxed, stored and replaced without any of the trauma that you have experienced, maybe we are just more careful? At one time I used to go up and strip off transducers etc. but the hiab operator who does it now has my total confidence.
I would not buy a boat that has been stored ashore with the mast up every winter, after experiencing it for one awful teeth loosening night, I just can not believe that that amount of shaking all through the winter could be good for it.
vyv_cox
Well-Known Member
I can see that your yard is set up to do the job properly and well. The incidents I describe have happened in a variety of different yards, not too well accustomed to doing this job. Yards I have used in Wales, Netherlands, France and Greece did not take down masts as a matter of course and thus left themselves open to unfortunate incidents.
Praxinoscope
Well-Known Member
Dropping a mast is not ‘rocket science’ with a competent crane operator and a couple of ‘banksmen’ there should be no reason for any damage to occur.
I have seen more top end damage during lift in and lift out than during dropping masts.
One assumes forklift/driver was insured so someone should have got a nice new mast, if they weren’t insured then I would query the suitability of the yard to operate.
Theft is a problem no matter what or where, although I will agree that masthead fitments are of course more velnerable with the mast down, but I still like the oportunity to check my mast, masthead fittings and rigging (standing &running) that dropping my mast affords.
vyv_cox
Well-Known Member
Presumably insurance paid up in the serious cases. The main problem I see is not so much the money, it's the time involved in sourcing and fitting a replacement. I have known several people who were dismasted for some reason and in each case they lost months of sailing time. If my mast was damaged enough to require replacement in Greece I cannot imagine how long it might take to obtain another. One of the cases I know of was in Greece and the hassle they went through to obtain a new mast is almost unbelievable. The boat was out of commission for nine months.
CAPTAIN FANTASTIC
Well-Known Member
Dropping a mast annually is an old fashion idea from the days of wooden masts, to oil and to service the mast, lines and blocks that needed annual attention. Nowadays, components are much more reliable, made from stainless steel and other materials which are more durable than materials from the 60's and 70's. This is why, (in the South) dropping a mast annually
is almost unheard of.
is almost unheard of.
Praxinoscope
Well-Known Member
Sorry don’t agree, modern materials are not much better than some of the old ones, and still need maintenance.
Sheeves get laden with salt and start to jam and seagulls land on ‘Hawks’ and knock them out of alignment.
Besides unless you stay on the water and use the boat during the winter why subject all your rigging to the crap weather that tends to come with November through March?
Yellow Ballad
Well-Known Member
Sorry for not replying, it's been a busy week this week at work. Thanks for all the tips etc, I might go half way up the mast and wrap the halyard above the spreaders as well as the bottom, I did try below the spreaders the other year on the water one windy night but I couldn't say it made any difference.
Likewise Mr F, always nice to have a chat. Good luck with the new boat!
Ha, quite the opposite to be honest, we're very independent of eachother... especially as I've been demoted to third place by the little man but I have to balance getting good boat time with family time, I enjoy both. How else would I have been able to spend my (our) half of our house deposit on a boat 8 weeks after having our first child.
https://www.ybw.com/expert-advice/guide-how-to-buy-your-first-boat-brokers-buyers-sellers-52167
Likewise Mr F, always nice to have a chat. Good luck with the new boat!
Ha, quite the opposite to be honest, we're very independent of eachother... especially as I've been demoted to third place by the little man but I have to balance getting good boat time with family time, I enjoy both. How else would I have been able to spend my (our) half of our house deposit on a boat 8 weeks after having our first child.
https://www.ybw.com/expert-advice/guide-how-to-buy-your-first-boat-brokers-buyers-sellers-52167