Lowerable Mast on 40-45 foot yacht

Dear all,

As I think someone else has said, this is a problem in Western Australia where all boats over about 25' need to lower masts to pass from the river to the ocean. It is very simple on boats under 40', a bit more work on larger boats.

We have an S&S 34 with a alloy masthead rig and my wife and I can lower the mast in about 10 minutes whilst underway, likewise with raising it. It can be done singlehanded with a little more time. You don't need any fancy gear, a couple of spinnaker poles will do, pivoting on rings bolted on to the deck just forward of the chainplates. It works best on an in-line rig, as then you can make an extension to the chainplate and make the pivot point dead in line with the mast hinge (or tabernacle pivot point). Thus the rig is still held firmly athwartships as it comes down. A device (eg crutch) to support it in the down position is advisable.

There is a good series of photos demonstrating this on the S&S 34 website: http://www.ss34.org - just click on "technical" and then "mast lowering".

I have found that it is best not to use an electric winch if you can manage without, as doing it manually you will feel if something is caught or not going right before you do any major damage. Most problems I have heard of seem to be related to powerful electric winches continuing to pull when something has jammed or caught. We use a 6:1 purchase with Anderson 46 winches and this is plenty of power to winch the mast up by hand in 2-3 minutes. A 40+ ft boat may choose the electric option however. The larger boats are the same principle, just heavier. You obviously need some quick means of releasing your forestay (& babystay for us) and vang if solid. I guess larger boats doing it everyday could use the permanently set up pivoting wishbone, but the principle is the same.

The above does not need any special gear other than a hinge in the mast or appropriate tabernacle. You do need 2 spinnaker poles. The rest is easily fabricated or modified on any sloop rigged yacht at little cost. We don't need to take our boom off, but do detach our solid vang. We lose minimal time lowering & raising the mast as we can do it underway whilst approaching and leaving the bridges. Don't forget though to tie all pins etc on to the boat so you don't lose them overboard when removing them!

 

Brilliant contributions everyone. Its a thing I have been intending to develop further on my next project, but apart from observing the occasional example as I mentioned, I hadn't got my mind around it.

On the Mac, I found that it was all the ancilliary mucking around with booms, roller reefing gear etc that took all the time, the actual raising/lowering of the mast was easy, as has been stated.

Torvies comment about the solid vang created a solution in my mind that had been worrying my, how to handle the boom storage.

I did another crude sketch on how to pivot the boom away from the mast and out of the way utilising the solid boom vang

Might work!

 

Brilliant idea for the solid vang: I must try that sometime as I will have to deal with bridges.

Your comment about time spent on roller gear reminds me of going for a quick test sail in my sailing kayak. My home-made umbrella-style sail gear and retractable Bruce foil could be erected from scratch, in the water, and packed away again for paddling in about one minute total. I launched in the marina and paddled out into the lake, and put up my tiny sail. As I left the marina I admired a large sailboat and watched it heave-to prior to entering the marina.

I enjoyed a short sail, satisfied myself that the rig worked well, and headed back. The guy, who was working single-handed, had finished rolling down his sails and securing the hardware and was puttering in ahead of me, and he had not lowered the mast either. While he was doing all that I had sailed across the bay and back.

Staring up at the transom towering over me and keeping well clear of the wash, I wondered who had had the most fun that day.

 

Dear all,

Perhaps I should clarify - what we do with the solid vang is to detach it from the boom. If you leave the control lines cleated off then the length won't change and it will be easy to fit back on. You need to pull it on just enough so the pin is loose in its hole on the boom, and have a quick release pin holding it in. Just pull the pin and lay the vang on the coach roof, then lay the boom off to one side in the usual way.

This is much easier than detaching the gooseneck fitting esp on larger boats. The gooseneck needs to be substantially bolted on and is a heavy fitting, whereas with the vang its simply a pin. And in an emergency (eg losing the pin overboard) you can easily sail without a vang but not without the gooseneck. There is also the danger of damaging the vang if you are using this as the sole support for the boom and the boat rolls a bit. From practical experience I can say that the above would be easier, quicker and safer than the suggestion of detaching the boom and pivoting it on the vang.

However, it is very true that the time spent is largely detaching and attaching the various fittings etc, not actually winching the mast up and down. Some thought here with appropriate quick release pins etc can make life easier. You also need to be very careful when putting the mast back up not to have any of the rigging attachments at mast or chainplates twisted so they catch and get bent - this is where winching manually helps. If you can, dedicate one person to watching to see it is all going up OK.

 

Yes, thanks for that info. I was under no illusion what you were doing with the vang.

What I was proposing is to only have to unfasten the boom connection, (which you have to do anyway), and utilise the vang as a means of supporting and guiding the boom out of the way to allow easy mast lowering.

Lifting and guiding the boom with sail isnt easy, but if at least the mast end was controlled, it would be a little easier.

It all relies on the vang fitting being able to pivot at the mast, and where it joins the boom

 

We don't detach the boom from the mast, it simply is lifted a little to one side as the mast comes down and pivots up on the gooseneck. The mast end of the boom is controlled as it is attached to the mast. However, if you have the boom topped up with a lift or the main halyard, don't do what I did last time and let it down too quickly onto your wife's head! You get used to the vang being there to hold it all up and forget it has been detached...

 

Yep. Would LOVE to see photos of a strong tabernacle for a 52' boat. Wasn't able to email you.

 

My '58 41' Dickerson Ketch has tabernacle masts...I've yet to address these in practical terms as we've "only just begun" ...however, I am thinking that their weight is less an issue than the rigging that must be maneuvered to raise or lower them.I can make subtle changes manually so, I'm, under the impression that a substantial windlass will most likely suffice...

The axis point ( a mere bolt, though, substantial) is my chief concern..

 

Hydraulic mast system.

Dear colin,
our company X Craft pty ltd based in WA have three such systems in use at the moment and are currently setting up supply to a range of yachts which may be suitable to your vessel. Please dont hesitate to call and we can send you details as the web site is still under construction.

Scott Talbot
X Craft pty ltd
0410 736 929