taking down and selling a wooden mast

ChattingLil

ChattingLil

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Please help me to help this young man at our marina - I have only scant details right now, but it would be nice if you can guide me to help him.

Young (apparently) novice, bought an old wooden boat and wants to take the mast down and sell it. It's a wooden mast. The person who sold it to him said it's on a tabernacle and can be taken down by three people. It also has no working engine so he would need a tow to a yard (there is no yard at our marina).

He bought the boat today, appears to know very little, has been given 13 days to move it from the marina. He wants the mast off so that he can get towed to the canal.

I know nothing about wood boats, wood masts, how heavy it might be,whether there is any value in it or how feasible itwould be to remove it while berthed at the marina.

What can we tell him or ask him tomorrow?

I've told him register here and ask,but of course he is short of time to await approval to post.

thanks
Lisa
 
ChattingLil said:
Please help me to help this young man at our marina
..........................................................
thanks
Lisa
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You don't say how big the boat is. The bigger the boat the bigger and heavier the mast is likely to be. Wooden masts can be pretty heavy esp if adorned with old fashioned iron fittings

Photos might be useful.

A tabernacle can make man handling mast easier because it gives some lateral stability,

Get extra helpers if possible.

lowering using a halyard round the bow roller may be the way to go.

Dont let anyone stand underneath until its necessary for one or two to take the weight.

A good idea if someone who knows what they are doing takes charge, and makes sure everyone else knows what they have to do before starting.

Lakesailor will come up with some pictures of mast raising/ lowering if he sees the thread
 
How big is the boat? Kindred Spirit at 24' has a wooden mast in a tabernacle, and we used to lower it every winter so I could varnish it. Two people were all that were needed, and we could lower it afloat although if the timings worked then I preferred to do it when we were flat on the mud so that we didn't heel.

Can give some more advice once I've had my tea :)

Pete
 
prv said:
How big is the boat? Kindred Spirit at 24' has a wooden mast in a tabernacle, and we used to lower it every winter so I could varnish it. Two people were all that were needed, and we could lower it afloat although if the timings worked then I preferred to do it when we were flat on the mud so that we didn't heel.

Can give some more advice once I've had my tea :)

Pete
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Sunday tomorrow ( I think??) get yourself moving in the morning and you should have it down for them by lunch time
 
From the sound of it the mast is not going to be worth much - and maybe a storage liability once down.
Easiest solution - hire an alloy tower for a day - erect around mast - chop into manageable chunks - take to tip - get towed to canal.
Thats the advise I would give .
A very nice 22' 1935 wooden yawl next to me at Uphill recently only made a grand at sale - and that included a nearly new Yanmar 1gm10 - you won't have maby takers for a wooden mast !

Geoff
 
Would love to find out more. What's the boat? Why does he want to change the mast.

One thing I didn't really like about Paean is the Ali mast. I then found out it was original was made by an aircraft manufacturer on the island, to special order for the designer and it was original.
 
nemodreams said:
From the sound of it the mast is not going to be worth much - and maybe a storage liability once down.
Easiest solution - hire an alloy tower for a day - erect around mast - chop into manageable chunks - take to tip - get towed to canal.
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I agree that an old wooden mast is unlikely to be worth much, but suggesting scaffolding as the easiest way to get it down is absurd. If it's in a tabernacle then it's designed to be self-lowered.

Pete
 
the boat is to be towed so wait untill then, once you get to the first bridge use a chain hoist to take the weight just above the balance point then undo or pull the pin out, lower the mast SIMPLE SAFE
 
VicS said:
It is unlikely that the tabernacle is designed so that the mast can be pivoted forwards like that
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Indeed, but it shows the principle for someone who's never done it before. A similar gin pole could be rigged out from the front of the mast. Kindred Spirit used the bowsprit, which the previous owner had modified to hinge upwards from its heel in the middle of the foredeck.

Pete
 
thanks everyone. This will give him a start. I will take some photos in the morning and try to post them (not that I have ever had any success doing that, but i can put them on photobucket or some such).

Be gentle when you see the photos - there would appear to be some work ahead....
 
Do not try to lower the mast using a tackle on the bow to the mast top without a gin pole. It is only when the mast gets past 45 degrees that the geometry puts real loads on the tackle until ultimately it crashes out of control to the deck. With likely damage. However if you have a very high crutch at the transom to catch the mast then you may get away with it. I would not risk it. Use a tall crutch anyway. Once he is set up for mast lowering he may choose to keep the mast.
Lots of descriptions etc on this forum on mast lowering including Lakesailor's method for keel mounted masts or no tabernacle using a high A frame to lift the mast.
Just be careful it will likely be very haavy. good luck olewill
 
I was in the market for a wooden mast last year. Eventually found one on ebay for £15 basically just for the wood. It was a rectangular section, goodness knows what boat it was from, but I managed to fashion a new mast from it and it now looks great. Point I'm making is that it is worth something, but probably not much, if only for the seasoned timber but then only if someone is prepared to collect it etc.
 
William_H said:
Do not try to lower the mast using a tackle on the bow to the mast top without a gin pole.
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+lots. Think about what the arrangement will look like when the mast's 2/3rds down - the forestay will be almost parallel to the mast and thus providing almost no perpendicular force to it. There are three ways to prevent this:

  • A gin pole attached to the mast that moves with it. The gin pole ends somewhere roughly over the stemhead (doesn't have to be that precise) and the line from masthead to gin pole is a fixed length. The moving line is between stemhead and gin pole, pivoting the whole triangle backwards.
  • A raised anchor point above the foredeck. This is what we used on Kindred Spirit, the bowsprit pivoted up to stand nearly vertical in the middle of the foredeck, with the bobstay acting as a guy in the forward direction but made fast. So the bowsprit didn't move during the operation, it was just a fixed high-up point (about eight feet up) to attach the moving line to.
  • An anchor point which isn't on the boat. I've heard of people attaching the line to a nearby building when their boat's in the yard. Probably not an option when afloat in a marina, but if there does happen to be a handy tall quayside then it might be worth considering. Would need to be lined up dead on the centreline of the boat to avoid dragging the mast over to one side.

Some photos of the boat, and particularly its foredeck arrangements, would be very helpful.

Pete
 
prv said:
An anchor point which isn't on the boat. I've heard of people attaching the line to a nearby building when their boat's in the yard. Probably not an option when afloat in a marina, but if there does happen to be a handy tall quayside then it might be worth considering. Would need to be lined up dead on the centreline of the boat to avoid dragging the mast over to one side.
Click to expand...

Raising and lowering the mast on my wee Hunter 490 became much easier when I realised I could place the trailer where the person on the masthead rope could stand on top of a 6' earth bank.
 
sorry, we haven't have the opportunity to take the photos today. Will try to do so soon. There is someone here with a humungous boat with a crane on it, so we may be able to help him that way. As the story is developing it looks like the mast removal may be the least of the concerns.

The mast is about 10m. There is forestay onto a bowsprit. A baby stay going to the deck. All rigging is rope. That's about all I can say for tonight.
 
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