Anybody know how heavy the mast is?

[SteveLyle]

Tall rig, keel stepped.  It's lying on the bow & stern pulpits.  Painted dark blue, with 16 years of scratches.  Before the boat goes back into the water in the spring, it'll have a white mast.

First task is to get the mast off the the boat.  I'm thinking of an approach using 2 extension ladders with block/tackle at the top, rigged with lines to control their position and movement, to lift the mast off the boat and set it down on sawhorses.  A key factor is - how much does the thing weigh?  Anybody know?

Thanks,
Steve

[Tom P, IMPULSE #233, '86]

Steve,

I'm new to Catalinas but not sailing...I know the mast on my Coronado 30 (mast length about 35') is darn heavy...It took 3 of us to pick it up and move it...

Anyway, back to the Catalina which has a much bigger stick (length and width)...The ladder trick will probably work, an "A" frame is pretty strong, BUT...You could do a lot of damage to the boat and mast if things go wrong---could bend the mast, damage hardware, or take a large chunk out of your boat...

Since your boat is currently out of the water, I'm guessing a boat travel lift put her there...I think it would be much safer if you just paid those guys to use the travel lift to lift your mast for you...Once it's on the ground and away from the boat, you and buddies can move it anywhere...Maybe you will get lucky and the lift operator may do it for a 6 pack of beer; it's not much work for him, and should only take about 15 minutes...But I think it's well worth having them do it vice doing it yourself and possibly having problems.

Good Luck,
Tom

[malgase]

Steve,

My guess is the mast, with all the rigging on it, weighs every bit of 300# plus.  A quick calculation gave me about 140# for just the extrusion, plus all the hardware.  I know when we move it around the yard where I keep my boat, we have a minimum of 5 or 6 guys on it.  Might be worth having the yard pick it with a boom truck if they have one and lowering it down for you.

Michael

[SteveLyle]

Tom P - are you sure that you're not really my mother posting under an assumed name?  :-)

Truly, I was going to check with the yard.  $60 to get it down off the boat.  Cheaper than buying another ladder.

But it would have been really cool to do it.  Max safe load on a 20' extension ladder is 200#, so if the mast was 300-400, it would have worked.  4-1 advantage with block/tackle would be about a 50# pull.  One person at each ladder, 1-2 on deck controlling the swing as the boom was raised off the deck and started to come toward the ladders, it would have been a great story to tell.

[Tom P, IMPULSE #233, '86]

Steve,

I hope I'm not your mom...If so, my family would have sold me off to scientists long ago---they're a greedy bunch :-)

Anyway, I agree that it would be cool to do it yourself...I rarely pay anyone to do anything for me, but there are limits...I'm just looking at the bigger picture regarding the boat and the mast...Both can easily cost a lot of money if damage occurs...So when it comes to pulling the mast (and lowering it too) I always let the yard do it---then it's their problem when something goes wrong...

Of the cuff, $60 sounds a little high to me for 15 minutes worth of work; but I still think it's $60 well spent...That's got to be a lot cheaper than any damage that might occur if something goes wrong--and is definitely a lot cheaper than my insurance deductable; not to mention the hassle of making a claim...

Once again, a single little ding to the gel coat can run several hundreds to fix...And a damaged mast/hardware are more than that...And hurt backs (the human kind) are priceless to fix...

Sorry not to support your ladder idea; just giving my 2 cents in protecting a very important (and expensive) toy...

Good Luck to whichever method you use...

Tom

[Tom Soko]

According to Jerry Douglas, the weight of my mast (C36 TR, 52' extrusion) with rigging attached, is about 600#.  It doesn't seem that much when lifting one end, but seeing lines strain when the crane lifts it out of the boat, I believe it.  Seems like a great idea to have your yard do the lifting.