Mast Raising

[Stef]

Larry, the setup you mention sound like what I got when purchasing my boat. I just bought it and wont be raising the mast until April. I looked at the class instructions from Dave Grover, it doesn't look anything like what I have, although I guess I could do it that way with the spinnaker pole. I have an "A" frame about 5 ft high with a roller at the top. The former owner said it was for the mast raising. Is there a sketch around using this setup?
Stef
"Odyssey" hull 146

[larryet]

I checked and what Dave Glover posted on the web site is what I used when I put my hardware together. A little scary the first time, after that, a piece of cake.
Good luck with your new boat.
Larry
#262

[Tim Bosma]

Stef,
Where are you located? Maybe some experienced help can show up in April.
Thanks,

[Stef]

I am in north east PA. , about a half hour east of Scranton. Near the town of Hawley.
Stef
"Odyssey" hull #146

[DD Mau]

We had a steel mounting fabricated to attach an electric winch up on the extension of the bow support on the trailer. It dismounts with a pin. My wife and I can easily raise and lower the mast with the winch cable connected to the spinaker pole. Obviously, we follow all the other rigging recommendations, especially port and starboard control lines for the spinaker pole, to keep it from falling over under load. And, we used 2" PVC and a roller for the mast support back at the transom. I made it just high enough so I could stand under it for powering the boat, and it works great.

[vandersr]

We have a support pole that fits over the pintles, but always use a six foot step ladder to support the mast instead. The width of the ladder is perfect in the cockpit and we position with the steps toward the bow. We have mostly used a wooden one, but I think aluminum is better. We use the ladder to board the boat on the trailer and then just pull it up when we are ready to raise the mast!

[Ed]

I just got a 7.9 and an A-Frame for mast lifting -I take it the 2x4s pivot from upright towards the bow eye with the A frame tilting forward - is this simple or am I missing something - maybe the A frame stays fixed as a derrick??

[Jim Kloss]

Sounds right to me. Attach jib and spinnaker halyards to the A-frame and lock them off. Run a line from the A-Frame -- just a little forward of vertical -- to a snatch block at the bow and then back to a cabin top winch.

Two people CAN do it, but I like to have some extra crew around to manually hoist the mast to start and to hold guy lines to keep the mast centered until the shrouds start to do their job.

Just reverse the process to bring it back down.

Jim Kloss
s/v Ambivalence
S2 7.9 #8

[Bob Kirsten]

Guys, Just to prove that there are more ways to spend your money, we added a nice wrinkle last year. I got an electric trailer winch, and had a portable base made for it that fits into the trailer bow tube above the manual winch. We hook up the halyards just like everyone else (in our case to chain supports at cabin heigth); hook our spinaker pole to an L bracket I made that fits over the mast step bolt (not the spinaker bracket); then connect the electric winch to the bottom of the outboard end of the spinaker pole. My wife and I can lift her up, or take her down with her on the switch, and I walk the mast up. I think it actually takes less time to set everything up. The cable from the winch clears the bow and the pulpit just fine.

BTW, I am going to take the advice of disconnecting the backstay, as I have had the tangle adventures too many times back there.

Bob Kirsten
DD Mau

[LarryE-old]

You guys are making this out to be more than it needs to be. Using Dave Glovers set up, which I got from this web site, and for around $30. one person can easily do the job. I have done it MANY times.
Nice to have someone else around, just so if anything hangs up.