Dear all

I am about to purchase a 235 (hopefully) and am reliant upon being able to raise and lower the mast relatively easily and quickly as I will tend to be dry sailing her, I would appreciate any guidance that you may have on the ease of what I am proposing and any tricks /challenges that you may have come across along the way. Suggestions of any tools or devices that you use or would recommend would be really useful. Thanks in advance

Liam

Hi Liam We dry sail from Bucklers Hard, however we are able to leave the mast up between launches, I have however had the mast down 3 times in the last three years, however each time there have been at two of us, the wind has been light, and there has been no time pressure. I have found that the main difficulty is setting up the length of the two lines which stabilise the bowsprit. Because the pivot point doesn't line up with the pin in the tabernacle, the lines slacken and tension as the mast rotates. At the worst you can seriously strain the ring at the foot of the mast where you clip on the bowsprit. One piece of advice, is that if you manually raise the bowsprit before you attach it to the mast you can check this tensioning. Another piece of advice would be to have strops to prevent the jib sheet leads shifting aft as you lower. One of them did with me, and the last few feet came down a bit quick. If you intend to do this regularly I would seriously consider making up something so that the lines stopping the bowsprit falling to port or starboard actually pivot on the same axis as the mast pin. Hope the above helps. I am sure there are some people who raise and lower regularly and can give you some better advice. Jim Hamilton (Sandy Lady)

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Thank you Jim. I think I understand your reply but if you have any photos of the process that would be extremely useful.

Any further info on Raising and lowering devices and process for the mast would be appreciated. Thanks Liam

Hi Liam, I haven't got any photos, but do you have the pages from the manual? If not I could e-mail them to you, they have photos and quite a good description

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Jim. I don't as yet. picking the boat up at the end of the week so hopefully collect a book then, but if you have the pages ref last to hand that would be great. I am buying the boat remotely and the broker isn't familiar with sailing yachts so not too sure how I will find the boat. Hopefully with the last down! thanks. Liam

Hello Liam,

I dry sail too, and tow my boat home for winter, so I raise and lower the mast at least once per season. This year it was twice each way, as I towed the boat to Bucklers Hard at Easter, rigged and de-rigged there and then brought her home before taking her to Plymouth later in the season. I think dry sailing is great if the boat is kept rigged and ready to go in a boat yard with a good slipway. The ability to tow to different places is also great but it is a fair bit of work, so the hassle:sailing ratio has to be carefully considered!

Raising and lowering the mast is fine and I often do it single-handed. As Jim highlighted, setting the lengths of the pole guys is necessary, otherwise the mast will slew to one side as it approaches horizontal (if lowering), or when it first lifts off (if raising). You can set the lengths if the mast is down but if you're starting with the mast up, you can only really judge it approximately.

However, if the jib pole/sprit does fall to one side, causing the mast to slew, it can be corrected by pulling on the appropriate cap shroud, which gives pretty good leverage. Or you can just keep one hand on the mast and shove it sideways as required (less leverage). Try not to let it slew sideways much or it will strain the tabernacle. It all seems rather daunting at first, as the mast looks very long, but remember that it's not very heavy, so there's little load on the lifting line (except when tensioning the rig to attach the forestay).

Once you've found the pole guy lengths, mark them with tape where the knots need to be tied. Alternatively, I've fitted rings on extra jib track sliders (which are also useful for sheet tweakers) and carbine hooks on the pole guys, so that they're just clipped on - much quicker and more accurate.

Control lowering by being careful to keep a turn of the line on the winch. I position myself (and anyone else) forward of the shrouds, to avoid a 'cheese-wire' situation should the mast fall for whatever reason!

There's one other tip that springs to mind but it relates to a separate post that I've just seen, so I'll reply to that. Apologies for not replying to your question sooner. Have lots of fun with your new boat.

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Anthony. Many thanks for your detailed response. Having now reread both yours and Jim's responses I have a bit more confidence in being able to do it. I've got the winter to practice now.