taking my mast down on my moody 34

[dilly]

hi i am thinking of sending my boat by road ,. so would need the mast taken down and put back up .any idear of the cost to do this, and the pitfalls and would you change or renew any thing with the mast down
thanks david

 

[Tranona]

Possible to use the same crane to take the mast down that you use to lift the boat onto the truck. Most yards will do this for you and will have a price for the job - probably around £150. It makes sense, however to have the mast taken out beforehand and have a rigger check the rigging and fittings so that you do any repairs or replacements before you leave. This avoids the potentially higher costs the other end and more importantly potential delays in getting the mast rerigged at the other end. Again a well organised boatyard will have the facility to both offload your boat and step the mast for you.

Just to give you an idea of costs, I had my mast taken out in Spain and prepared for shipment on the truck for just under £200 and the rigger this end charged £350 to check it over, replace some minor fittings such as pins and a new spinnaker halyard plus supervising the stepping and set it up correctly. This is a double spreader fractional rig on a 37' boat.

 

[dilly]

Hi thanks thinking about doing mine the other way west Wales to Spain been given 4800 for the delivery plus on and off and mast down and back up against about 4000 to deliver by sea

 

[Quandary]

It would be a shame to take the mast down and put it up again without taking the opportunity to check everything over, my mast comes down every winter and I usually find something that needs attention up there. I agree with Tranona that it is probably going to be easier to do this first and may take a few days to organise, you are more likely to find the help you need nearer home. Your mast is deck stepped so relatively easily removed, our local one man yard charges about £150 for a keel stepped mast, I usually have most of the rig slackened off, the wind transducer and windex out and the running rigging all cleared before I present it, but while this reduces the time spent lifting it to about 20 mins. it is not reflected in the charge because maintaining the crane for occasional use is the biggest part of the cost of the operation.

 

[PetiteFleur]

Definitely carefully check both lighting and VHF aerial on the mast top. On my Moody 33 I renewed all the wiring with proper tinned copper cable of the correct size and also took the opportunity to replace the VHF aerial and coax cable. Also renewed wiring to the spreader & steaming light. Also checked the masthead sheaves, one of which was siezed and of course all the rigging. Much easier to do with the mast down!

 

[Tranona]

Hi thanks thinking about doing mine the other way west Wales to Spain been given 4800 for the delivery plus on and off and mast down and back up against about 4000 to deliver by sea

That is a good price for road transport. it is often a close call cost wise between road and sea delivery. However, sea can be a bit unpredictable as delays can rack up costs quickly, as well as take longer than expected. There is also the potential wear and tear issue, particularly with a boat that has not been used for that type of passage before. on the other hand, if you go with the sea delivery you will learn a lot about your boat along the way.

 

[dilly]

That's a problem to as I won't be on the boat to see and know what's going on