We've had other boats and there's always a little bit of effort when you finally attach the bottom of the furler to the deck fitting , after having raised the mast.

My question is, how much effort is everyone putting into it on their 235?

We raise and lower the mast regularly here on the Broads and are finding that the final 2" to connect the two, requires me to push hard, down on the bottom furler with my foot !

Obviously we have the backstay slack at this point.

We've never altered the shrouds since we bought her last year...

It all seems a little 'tight' but maybe that's how it is ?

Many thanks Ian & Julie

I'm very surprised you have been taking the mast up and down without altering the shrouds. I had a 21 but I don't see that there should be any difference. I raised the mast with the shrouds all slackened off quite a bit. Then with the forestay connected, tightened the lowers to get the mast exactly upright. Then tightened the cap shrouds to get about 5cm prebend in the mast. It's the tension in the caps that prebend the mast the right way by pushing the spreaders. Without doing this you are at risk of having the rig wave about and "pant" in strong winds.

Geoff

Thank you for taking the time and trouble to reply Geoff. I think we'll try your suggestion but it will be next year now as the mast is now stepped. We had an A frame fitted last week and the chap who did it , said that will give more leaverage when pushing the furler towards the deck.
I dunno , maybe we're just getting old and feeble , me and skipper wife - we need more oomph. Lol.

Hello Ian and Julie,

It's important for the shrouds to be pretty tight, as Geoff said, to protect the mast from bending the wrong way, to avoid shock-loading and breakage that results from slack rigging, and to allow the sails to set correctly. It's not necessary to adjust the shrouds in order to raise and lower the mast on the 235, though (assuming the tensions are appropriate. It's well worth buying a tension gauge for accuracy.)

However, I too used to worry about the tension needed on the mast-raising tackle in order to fit the forestay pin. I then realised that the jib pole/sprit that used in the mast-raising operation is too short and consequently pulls back on the halyard, adding unnecessary tension that fights against you. The solution is simply to disconnect the pole from the mast once the mast is upright and before tensioning the tackle to connect the forestay. (The pole is no longer needed at that point.) Likewise, when lowering the mast, set up the pole in the usual way but then disconnect it from the mast in order to tension the rig and disconnect the forestay. Then ease the tension, reconnect the pole to the mast and lower away.

Without the pole pulling on the halyard, the tension needed to fit/remove the forestay clevis pin isn't excessive.

My boat was used on the Broads by her first owner, who had an A-frame fitted just as you have. I still have it and used it when I first bought the boat. It does allow the mast to be lowered pretty readily for passing under bridges (once the boom's off, obviously).

Hope that helps.

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Wow. Anthony, this is the definitive answer. Of course ! that's a really good idea to disconnect it , once the mast is upright. We sort of thought the pole wasn't doing much but never realised it would actually improve the angle and tensions that could be utilised when fitting the pin.
Gold Star ⭐️ for everyone who's given advice !