Unstepping The Mast

Middle Ground
N 42 15.865 W 73 48.055

Tuesday, June 12

If you own a sailboat and if you travel widely, you may go through the mast unstopping/stepping experience like we did yesterday. I though I’d describe it from our point of view.

First a disclaimer. If you want descriptions of how to raise and lower the mast without the help of a boatyard, see Bud Taplin. Bud has instructions including a video for how to do it yourself. If I had a couple of men to help me I might have tried it myself, but with just me and Libby on our live aboard boat, I don’t want to take the chance of someone getting hurt or of damaging critical equipment. I elected to pay about $150 to have it done professionally.

• The first step is to find a place to do it for you. This year we used Hop-O-Nose marina in Catskill, NY, based on good recommendations we heard from several sources. Having experienced and skilled workers doing the job is important, hence recommendations were welcome. Catskill is 50 miles south of the Erie Canal. If you wait until you get to the mouth of the canal and then ask who can help with the mast, the answer is, “50 miles behind you.” Beware of one thing. The boss at Hop-O-Nose said that most other marinas got out of the mast stepping business, and perhaps some day Hop-O-Nose will too.When we called in advance they said come the earlier the better because they were expecting 7 sailboats that day. We got there early at 08:30, and we were the first ones in. The night before we did our preparations including:
• Remove all sails and stow them below decks. We have a hanked on jib, so I did not have to deal with a roller furler.
• Remove the topping lift and lazy jacks from the boom and secure them to the base of the mast.
• Also secure both ends of all halyards to the base of the mast. Do not leave any loose ends hanging around.
• Remove the boom and store it on deck.
• Remove the whisker pole and store it on deck.
• Remove the lightning ground lead from the base of the mast.
• Go below and remove the mast end of all wiring. Be sure to label and/or document it in such a way that you can put all the wires back when you are done. I removed 10 wires for the radar, 4 for the wind instrument, one for the VHF antenna and 4-6 for lighting. I had them all labeled by color and with wire ties, and then wrapped the ends in masking tape to protect them. The first time I did this job, two years ago, I made a label for each wire, and attached it with scotch tape. Then I wrapped the entire bundle of loose wire ends in duck tape to protect them from the weather. Some months later when I went to restore the wiring, I pulled off the duck tape and the tape pulled off all my labels with it. Don’t do what I did.
• Prepare to remove all the stays. I took off all the vinyl tape, and straightened all the cotter pins but left them in place for the evening.
  

When we arrived at the marina and positioned the boat under the crane, I did the final preparations.

• I removed the cotter pins and clevis pins from the chain plates releasing the fore and aft side stays from both sides. Just relive the tension using the turnbuckle and slip out the clevis pins. Focus intensely on what you are doing so that you don’t drop any overboard. I also removed the cotter pints, but not the clevis pins from the cap stays and fore/back stays.

• We also carried the sails up to the marina’s lawn, spread them flat and folded them carefully. They only occupy 1/3 the volume when neatly folded.

• We needed some kind of a wooden support to hold the mast. Two years ago, when we did this, I had a rental car and we bought wood and parts and made a custom A frame to hold the mast in the stern. I tied the forward end of the mast to the bob pulpit. It worked OK, but I the pulpit isn’t really strong enough for that. This time, we used a wooden support to stand on the fore deck and hold the front end of the mast. The aft end I dropped in to the boom gallows. I was going to make the wooden stand but the boat yard had an old one sitting around that they sold to me for $10. Great price.

When everything was ready, the workers came and attached the crane to the mast.

• They lift from the spreaders and also attach back up lifting lines to the sheet winches. Then they lift with the crane just enough to take the weight of the mast.
• With the crane supporting the mast, I removed the clevis pins and released the fore stay and the two cap stays. In my plan, the back stay remains attached. That is because the back stay is my SSB antenna and I didn’t want to remove the antenna wire.
• Now, use some lengths of line to lash all those stays, including the pin rails, to the mast. You can’t help having some loose ends dangling, but lash it up the best you can.
• Also lash, the wooden mast stand on deck to make it support itself.
  

Now we were ready to unstep.

• First, we used the crane to lift the mast 6 inches. (Westsails have deck stepped masts, not the keel stepped ones that go all the way to the bottom of the boat.)
• Then I went below and guided the wires up trough the pipe that guides wires trough the cabin roof. I went above again and carefully pulled each wire up through the pipe until it was free. I noticed for the first time that Tarwathie had a conical shaped canvas boot that the wires went trough. The end of the boot fit over the pipe. It’s purpose was to keep rain water out. This boot was not on the pipe and last winter we did get a few drops of water coming in during rainstorms.
• With the mast free, the yard workers simply pushed the base of the mast forward, then lowered the whole thing slowly using the crane. It dropped into the wooden base up front and into the boom gallows aft with no problem.
• Next, use as many lines as necessary to tightly (TIGHTLY) secure the mast from moving left or right or (especially) fore and aft. If we run aground at 6 knots the boat will halt abruptly and it would be disastrous to have the mast come crashing down on our heads at that time. Use over kill rather than under kill in securing everything.
• Last, use some more small lines to tie up all the drooping stays and halyards that hang down in your way.
  

Neglecting time waiting for the men to show up, and not including the preparation, our total time at the marina dock was about one hour. If you came to the dock without the advance preparations, it would take two or three hours.

One thing I did not realize until last night at anchor. (1) I can’t post blogs with the SSB radio when the mast is down. (2) We can’t use the normal anchor light. Fortunately, we have an old oil lamp anchor light that we rigged up.

At the far end of the canal, we reverse the process. If I remember right from past experience, it takes about the same time and effort to step the mast and rig the equipment as it does to unstep it. That’s assuming that your labeling system for the wires worked and assuming that you can find all the clevis and cotter pins.

p.s. One more tip. An old timer in Vermont recommended that I get brass cotter pins rather than stainless ones. Brass pins are much softer, easier to bend, and don’t have the sharp edges to cut your fingers like stainless ones do. I bought a box of 100 brass cotter pins from Jamestown Distributors for $15 and I’ve been very glad that I did ever since.