Unstepping a mast with in-mast furling

[tonywright]

This week I lifted the mast off the boat in prep for winter storage. Friends at the club helped: we have a masting crane over a well.  (We don't have a travel-lift, so the mast has to come off).

First challenge was how to easily satisfy the requirement in the manual to "Please use a wooden wedge in the cavity opening at the lifting strap when stepping to avoid damage". I noticed that the professionals have never bothered to do this, with no apparent damage yet, but I don't want to trust that the luck holds up. Others with in mast furling tell me they have never done it either. But if you end up bending something, these masts are expensive to replace. More on that later.

The spreader base is over 20 ft off the deck, so either requires a trip up in the bosun's chair, or...

I measured the slot at just under 1 inch, and determined that a wedge should not intrude more than 1 inch in order to avoid damage to the furling mechanism. I* found a piece of cedar about 1" by 1.5" and about 18" long.

It was easy to shape with a belt sander into a slight v-shape (looking from either end) about 3/4" on the inner edge, and still 1.5" on the outer. I attached a large screw with an eye at each end, and attached it with a thin line to the halyard, and another line at the other end. To keep it in the groove, I fastened a  thin piece of hard plastic about 1" by 1/2" with a small screw on the inner edge. I turned it until it slid nicely in the cavity, as I hoisted it to the correct height. The piece of plastic stopped the wedge sliding out of the cavity and twisting. But it is easy to break off, if anything gets stuck. The halyards attached should make it easy to bring back down the mast next spring after it is stepped back on the boat. I will try and take a photo next weekend.

The second challenge was getting the mast strap up to the spreader. This wouldn't be a problem, except for the radome nicely mounted about 18 inches below the spreader. The usual mast lifting strap can't get past it.  So I purchased an 8ft long 2 inch wide lifting strap from the local tool barn: $20.00. Then we attached two long lines to the strap. As one person raised the strap, and after a bit of trial and error, we were able to pull the long lines out horizontally so that the strap opened wide enough to pass over the radome.  Still no trip up the mast required. Which is good, because the club likes to keep the well time to a half hour per boat.

One final tip: as a safety measure we used a hefty block of wood under the base of the mast while disconnecting the VHF, electrical, radar etc. Radar and wind instrument use mil-spec connectors inside the mast. These work amazingly well, and have weatherproof caps when disconnected. These were time consuming to put on originally, but IMO very well worth it. Ten times better than the little black plastic boxes with screw connectors.

Oh, the expensive mast story: apparently a mast stepping job didn't go so well over at the club next door. It was a double spreader mast on a B351. With in-mast furling. Some inexperienced mast lifters got to work and put the strap under the lower spreader. When they lifted, the mast was top heavy and over she went. Bent beyond redemption now.  The new extrusion alone is $19,000.  Plus the in-mast furling gear, etc. Moral of the story: be very careful who you have step your mast. Make sure they are well insured! If you do it yourself, make sure you are well insured!