Painless Mast Raising

How to raise the mast if you're not Charles Atlas
Anungoday and friends on Lake Freeman

Impetus

It was shortly after I nearly dropped the mast, catching it at some cost to my muscles, that we began to seriously consider how to do this in an efficient and safe way. Anungoday's mast is 24' long, and weighs more than I care to hold over my head. While raising it by hand, there is that precarious step one must take, from the cockpit seat onto the deck, that helped urge an examination of our mast-raising options.

Plans

The major considerations in this endeavor were:

What equipment to use.

At what angle to pull to use the equipment and ourselves most efficiently.

Where to pull - where to attach pulling devices, and how to make them easy to handle.

Materials and Schemes

We had a good way to pull. The mainsheet was already on board, and if it could handle the force of the sail and wind trying to tip the boat over, we figured it could haul the mast. Attaching it to the bow was fairly easy, and it just barely reached one of the winches on deck.
mainsheet block attached at bow

We knew that if we just attached the mainsheet to the top of the mast and pulled, we would end up trying (probably without much success) to shorten the mast. We had to either get the mast UP some to begin with (which was the original trouble), or find a way to PULL up.

Using the boom as a "gin pole" solved several problems. Not only did we get a better angle from which to pull, but we did it without adding more STUFF to Anungoday's inventory. There was a convenient pad eye on the forward side of the mast, placed there for attaching the whisker pole. The boom normally connects to the aft side of the mast via a locking pin, which coincidentally also fits the pad eye. (The original pad eye was plastic; for this project we replaced it with a stainless steel version.)
boom/gin pole attached to mast

The only remaining challenge was attaching the pulling device to the boom/gin pole and then to the mast. We decided to use the forestay for the mast-to-boom part, though one of the halyards would probably work as well. You can see the split-bolt that attaches the redavination at the end of the boom to the forestay. The split-bolt attachment allows the forestay to be used despite the fact that it is too long (though just the right length for a forestay). The bitter end of the mainsheet is knotted and attached to the end of the forestay via the shackle that also holds one of the mainsheet blocks.
forestay-boom-mainsheet

Directions

  1. Free up shrouds, forestay, and anything else necessary to allow the mast to be raised. (We keep the shrouds attached at both ends, coiling and bungeeing them for storage or traveling. If you disconnect yours, now is the time to reattach them.)

  2. Place the mast in its pre-raised position. For the Ensenada, that means pretty far aft, with the base of the mast in the foot.

  3. Attach the mast to the mast foot (the Ensenada has a bolt or pin on the aft side of the mast foot, which acts like a hinge).

  4. Attach the mainsheet to the bow. Pull enough line forward that it can be attached to the boom when it's in place.

  5. Attach the forestay to what will be the high end of the boom.

  6. Attach the mainsheet to the end of the forestay.

  7. Attach the boom to the front of the mast.

  8. Check again to see that the shrouds are free.

  9. PULL!

Up, up, up with a mast

It helps to have a second person around to steady the boom as the pulling begins. That person can also check the electrical fittings during pauses as the mast is hauled, and hold the mast in its upright position while the forestay is secured at the bow. But with a cleverly placed winch and cleats, one person CAN do this alone.

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