Mast Lowering procedure

[richardc]

I have just bought an LM 27 – Bevinda III, which has come with equipment for raising and lowering the mast. However, whilst I am aware of the general approach to this process, the precise way in which the various poles, supports and the block and tackle should be used remains a bit of a mystery. Has anyone got the original manufacturer’s instructions for this? I would rather do it by the book as I don’t want to put the mast through the wheelhouse roof if I can help it! I should add that my boat is a 1975 and made for the German market.


Many thanks

[tonyp]

I will be very interested to see the replies to this.  Our new boat has the mast in a tabernacle, but apart from the fact that the cap shrouds are attached to the top of extended stanchions that bring their ends level with the pivot of the tabernacle, and a mast crutch in one of the lockers, there is nothing else obviously connected with the system.  That being said, there is a very meaty spinnaker pole strapped to the mast and I wonder if it is, (or doubles as), a gin pole.  If this is so, I haven't found the stays to prevent it capsizing when in use, nor where such stays would be fixed.  Nor have I found any purchase for doing the actual lowering. Needless to say, I haven't tried to lower the mast yet!
Tony

[ivor]

Can't help at the moment but I do have some drawings on the boat. I'll be up there in a couple of weeks and I'll try to get them photographed and uploaded here (if I can figure out how to upload pics). The drawings are hand drawn and I don't know whether they are copies of the originals or not. Nor do I know if the various poles I have are original equipment or mad by a previous owner. I do know that as well as the various bits of pole there are 2 u bolts fitted to each of the side decks which are shown as being used in the raising and lowering.
My LM27 is also 1975 vintage.

[vic]

Hallo Richard,
I don't know if you had the same system as the mine?
I post here some pictures of straightening the mast.
In the hope that this may be helpful.

kind regards,

Vic

[Charles]

I too am interested in the outcome of this discussion. When we bought Marguerite she was fitted with the steel poles, etc, for mast lowering and raising. On the advice of the rigger who was replacing all the standing rigging for us they went to the garage at home where they still are. The only reason that I could think of for wanting to lower the mast would be if we were taking the boat into the Norfolk Broads, and the faffing around that would be involved is enough of a deterrent to rule that out. We are considering possibly going into the French canals next year, and if we do I will have the mast taken down professionally.

We inherited a similar system with our first boat, an 18' Sailfish, and it too was complicated but the scale was much smaller and more manageable. Because we then sailed on the River Cam which has lots of bridges, mast lowering was a frequent event so I designed and made a different system which was permanently in place and more reliable and which allowed me to lower and raise the mast from the cockpit, single handed and without stopping. But the LM 27 is a completely different matter and the potential for disaster is much greater unless you have lots of helpers and everyone knows what they are doing.

Good luck!

Charles

[tonyp]

Vic's pictures are very useful.  Of particular interest to me is the presence of jaws on the gin pole where it clasps the mast, and tubular braces between the elongated stanchions to which the gin pole stays are fitted, and the mast.  I definitely haven't found any of these on our boat, and will check tomorrow whether there is any sign of attachment points for them.  Since this post started I had been wondering whether attaching the cap shrouds to the top of elongated stanchions was a wise thing, as has been done on our boat. In a blow there would be a strong tendency for the windward stanchion to bend putting the mast out of alignment as the windward shroud effectively lengthened. Our boat was re-rigged 2 years ago so I might talk to the riggers!  I look forward to seeing Ivor's drawings, as they might add some more detail.


Tony

[richardc]

Thanks very much Vic for the pictures, they certainly give me a better idea of how it all fits together but I will have to have another good look at the equipment I have been left with to see how it matches up with your pictures.

I will be very interested to see your drawings Ivor, especially as our boats are of a similar vintage but I suppose a lot can be changed and modified by owner in 42 years ! We will see.

Glad this subject is of interest to others as well

Richard

[ivor]

As promised. I hope these are of use. It is not something I ever intend to do. I used to raise and lower masts frequently when I had a trailer sailer. The last time I assisted a friend to lower the mast was on a 26ft Macwester, and I was very lucky to escape having my head smashed in. The method we were using was more like the pictures I will enclose on my next post (also taken from the info I inherited with my LM).

Attachments:

[ivor]

These instructions seem to be an alternative to the ones provided by Scanyacht in my last post. If you have raised and lowered masts before you will know how tricky it can be. If you have no experience of doing it before then I would think twice about starting with an LM27.

[richardc]

Hello Ivor. Thanks, this is just what I wanted to help understand the process. I will certainly have a good think about it before giving it a go and may just bottle out and pay for a crane in the end but at least I have the idea. I have raised and lowered the mast on a Fox Cub 18 and it was surprisingly heavy for such a small boat, so I have some idea of the forces involved,

Thanks again.
Richard

[tonyp]

Vic,

After a long break in this thread, I have a question for you.  Before lowering your mast you obviously have to disconnect the fore stay from its deck mount and attach it to the gin pole/ jyde boom before you can commence lowering. How do you support the mast during this change over?  Do you use a halyard as a temporary fore stay?  I presume you can't rely on the forward baby stays to provide a temporary replacement for the support offered by the fore stay.

An as an aside, the "elongated stanchions" in my last post on this, are actually loose, tubular extensions to the chain plate, and they automatically take up the line of the cap shroud when tensioned.  Obvious really, but we only confirmed this when we recently un-stepped the mast!  

Tony

[ivor]

On my previous boat, a Westerley Centaur, I did disconnect the forestay when I was fitting a new one. The mast was supported temporarily by a halyard tied to the pulpit.

[vic]

I try to explain the steps you need to follow to lower the mast.
1. you fix the boom to the mast foot and fix the head side stays. Then you lose the tension of the back stay.
2. You lose the tension of the back baby stay.
3. Only as a second safety you fix the line of the foresail or the line of the foresail cover to the front (pulpit) of the boat.
4. Lose now the fore stay and fix it at the boom.
5. Disconnect now the forward baby stay.
6. Then you are now losing the safety lines and you can begin lowering the mast, you will see that in the beginning you had to give it some help but after the first meter you will have tension on the line of the block.
Be sure that is never a person under a lowering or lifting mast.
Vic

[tonyp]

That's perfect, Vic.  Thanks very much.  I'd almost feel happy using our tabernacle system now.  It's just that the cost of 2 triple-sheave blocks, two lengths of stainless bar and 60 metres of 12mm line would probably pay for craning down the mast for the next 10 years!  
Tony

[tonyp]

For anyone who, like me, was wondering how difficult this could be; it's a piece of cake. (I know you guys in the Nederlands do it all the time, but we Brits don't have much need to drop masts ourselves.)
Setting everything up probably took me an hour, but I reckon I could do it in 10 minutes now. For the first attempt I doubled up everything, just in case, but can see it was not necessary. Lowering the mast took about 10 minutes, and that was longer than need be. I was surprised how far the mast had to to be forced back before gravity would overcome the friction on our lowering tackle. We used a 6:1 tackle led back to a cockpit winch. It just needed 2 turns on the drum to provide more than enough friction braking. The jam cleat held everything even at the greatest weight, so it was all very easy to control. We'd estimated that the maximum pull at the winch was about 27 kg- so pretty small.
The only "special" things I had to provide were two pieces of thick walled aluminium tube to strut between the tops of the cap shroud chainplate extensions and the tabernacle, otherwise stuff used elsewhere on the boat was used.  
It definitely needs two people, though, mainly to get the mast moving. At one stage I was hanging on the back stay and someone was pushing on the mast, all to overcome the friction in the tackle before it started to run freely. 

tonyp