Mast Cradle for Erie Canal

Dave Dawe · August 16, 2008, 06:38:46 AM

Hi all
We are heading out in Sept to the canal system from Lake Ontario to the Hudson river and then heading down the ICW to Florida and the Bahamas. I am looking for a good design for a mast cradle for the canal portion of the trip. Any thoughts or pictures would be great.

Thanks,
Dave

Stu Jackson · August 16, 2008, 09:21:07 AM

Dan harrington of Weal Sea has done a lot of cruising. A link to many of his contributions is: http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~harringd/gallery/WealSeaMenu.html

Do a MB search on "wealsea" and find some of his posts. may be something in there.

Ron Hill · August 17, 2008, 01:31:03 PM

Dave : Why not ask Catalina what they use for a mast cradle when they ship the boats from the factory?

Dave Dawe · August 17, 2008, 04:29:47 PM

Thanks folks = good ideas. I'll also do a bit of experimenting before hand.

ken003 · August 17, 2008, 04:45:46 PM

This is what I used going through the Erie Canal. Built the same thing 2 years later to go through the Trent-Severn and Chambly. It worked very well. Having the bimini up was really nice.

Ken

tonywright · August 26, 2008, 01:28:31 PM

4 boats from our club are making the same trip in September, including a C34 and a C320. THey have arranged for a truck to take the masts and meet up with them at the end of the canal. Want me to put you in touch with them? (In case it makes sense for you to join in?)

Tony

Braxton · August 26, 2008, 03:36:42 PM

If you can make the trip without the mast then I would strongly recommend that you do. When I made a trip through the canal (disclaimer: my trip was about 20 years ago) there were several series of lift/draw bridges that were operated by a single operator. Having to wait for them to drive to your bridge can add some significant wait times. The ability to slip under as many bridges as you can without requiring them to open can make the planning and running of your cruise much easier.

At the very least try and keep your total height as low as possible. Check out what the controlling height is and do everything that you can to stay under it. A quick google search makes it seem like the height is 13 feet. Do everything you can to keep your height under that.

As I recall the big lesson we learned was that you need to make sure that when you mast is in the cradle that your spreaders are horizontal. Having our spreaders rising up above the mast at an angle killed us on a few of the bridges.

Dave Dawe · August 27, 2008, 06:55:57 PM

I have been away form this site and email for a bit - thanks for the additional info and the picture - great!
Tony - I would like to be in touch with the Ottawa group going down. If you can send me a contact that would be great.
I am at davedawe@netscape.net

Dave

tonywright · August 28, 2008, 10:55:40 AM

Just sent you an e-mail to link you up.

Tony

iwillmott · August 28, 2008, 01:16:24 PM

We went thru Trent & Erie system in '06 using the bow & stern pulpits as a bas and using 2x4's for risers and a piece of 1/2 plywood as a template with a slot for the mast so it couldn't turn sideways.doubled up the 2x4's for the mast hole . 78 locks I recall & it worked okay. my email is iwillmott@sympatico.ca if you would like pictures.