Winterizing Mast?

[DaveBMusik]

What does everyone do to ready your mast for winter? Mine will be on an outside rack.
Halyards on or off?
Wiring?   Dialectric grease on ends?  Wrap in plastic?  Tape?
Furling Drum:  Wrap in plastic or leave open?
Anything else?

Thanks!

Dave

[mregan]

Nothing.

[Jim Hardesty]

I don't take my mast down every year, about every 4 or when I want to do something.

I take the halyards off.  To inspect them.  I have a set of tracer lines, so it's not much work.
Wiring.  I cover the connections.  I have no bare wires.  I clean and Super Lube in the spring.
Furling drum comes off.  I cover the bearings.
I cover the mast ends.  Birds like to build nests in masts.

I go  dumpster diving or just ask for the shrink wrap scraps and cover the mast.  Cut slots in the bottom so any water that does get in will drain.  This is for Erie, PA Lots of snow and wind.  Our mast racks are out on a breakwall.  Exposed to the weather, seagulls and geese.  If they were more protected I may do less.  Would still do the halyards, wiring, and cover the mast ends.
In the spring I wax with a coat or two of automotive wax.  I think that that keeps the anodizing looking good.

Jim

[KWKloeber]

Dave,

When I used to "winter" the yard left her up.  Only to inspect did I drop the past.  Many wrap the spars, but I have read cautions (can't recall where) to NOT tightly wrap with plastic, etc.  But to wrap very loosely so air circulates or with something breathable (canvas?)  That makes sense to me, intuitively, like leaving turnbuckles open rather than leather covered, but have no practical experience wrapping tightly or loosely.

kk

[Dave Spencer]

I drop my mast every year and I do nothing to it except tie off the stays and shrouds every 6 feet or so to keep them off the ground.  I coil the halyards / reefing lines / outhaul up so they don't lie on the ground too.  I rest the mast and boom on 4 wooden horses that I built.  We have about 50 masts that must be taken down every year before haulout and they are stored in an area exposed to the weather meaning they are usually partially buried in snow for part of the winter.  Only 5 or 6 people wrap them which seems like unnecessary work to me.  If I had high tech (i.e. expensive) halyards, I would likely remove them and run a tracer. 

[KWKloeber]

Oh yes, and it's a perfect time as well to yank the lines and take them home to soak in oxyclean and completely rinse them to refresh them.

-kk

[DaveBMusik]

Thank you all!

[tonywright]

One more thought: Just remember to turn the furler so that the slots face down. This avoids ice splitting the furler track. Saw a real mess on someone's furler one spring. Amazing the damage a little ice can do.

Tony