How to drive a mast down the road and lower a mast

This is a double article. The fist bit is how to drive a mast down the road and an old photo showing how we did it.

The link is-
http://www.tongacharter.com/report-mast.htm

The article is a system of lowering a mast without a crane.

The article and link for photos are free. I'll put the first para here of each article to give you the idea if it's worth the click.

Hope this helps when someone needs it.

Scott




How to drive a mast down the road lower a mast without a crane

By Captain Scott Fratcher adapted from "Businesses run from a cruising boat or How to make money with boat"



Driving a mast down the road

This rig made it 1500 miles!
Raising and lowering masts means you might have to move a mast by road. Moving a mast is pretty easy if you know the trick. The photo above is a mast that we drove from San Francisco all the way to La Paz, Mexico down the 700-mile twisty tourney Baja highway.



The trick here is to get the mast up and over the vehicle. If we just try to tow the mast the car and trailer will be too long to legally drive down the road.



We have to build a carriage for the mast on top of the tow vehicle and another for the far end of the mast on the trailer. The tow vehicle ...

For full article and photos see-
http://www.tongacharter.com/report-mast.htm


Lowering a mast without a crane



Yachts have to lower their masts for all types of reasons. Maybe they found the mast step to be corroded, or the masthead had a failure that can only be dealt with from land, or maybe it's just time for maintenance. In this article were going to talk about lowering a mast when no crane is available. For example, perhaps your vessel is in a remote location or perhaps the cost of a crane is out of the DIY budget.



The steps to unstopping a mast without a crane are:



Estimate the weight of the rig to be lifted

Find a structure to lift from

Attach the lifting rig to the mast

Lower the mast to the deck





Estimate the mast weight

Start by estimating the weight of the mast you plan to lift. You migh...

For full article and photos see-
http://www.tongacharter.com/report-mast.htm






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