For the first decade or so that I owned Anungoday, I simply stored her for the winter with one of those inexpensive blue tarps draped over her. I didn't expect them to last forever...but I was hoping to get at least a full season out of one. That didn't happen. My Ensenada has a nice set of lifelines, which includes lifeline stanchions...which do a pretty decent job of perforating tarps.
To support the tarp down the middle, I wanted to rig the mast down the middle. Unfortunately, the mast crutches were set up to store on the starboard side of the boat. After some less-than-successful winters with 2 x 4 "X"s supporting the mast, we came up with a mast support that attaches to the pintle & gudgeon that the rudder normally attaches to.
Here is a shot of the transom, with an overall view of the arrangement, another showing how the mast crutch that came with the boat just slides inside the top of the perf tube, and a third showing the smaller perf tube inserted into the larger.
Perforated tube is wonderful stuff! This is galvanized tube, so it hasn't rusted in our northern weather in over 4 years of use. Using the tube-in-a-tube setup, I can set the height wherever I want it. Two stainless bolts keep it at the height I've chosen, and another holds the mast crutch at its designated height.
Here are some detail shots. The first shows the chunk of wood I added to keep the perf tube from rotating on the pintle & gudgeon. The second shows the upper attachment, and the third the lower.
We got REAL lucky when we decided to try eyebolts through the perf tube to attach it to the rudder fittings. The holes in the tube couldn't be more perfectly spaced for this job! The mast support simply attaches to the boat the same way the rudder does. You can see that the two eyebolts are screwed into nuts that set them at different lengths out of the tube. This allows the tube to sit more upright on the slanted transom.
My ever-resourceful friend came up with the idea of using tennis balls on the tops of the lifeline stanchions. That has worked well ever since, though I never did find a source of old, deflated tennis balls - I had to buy new ones and cut holes in them, which pains my recycling heart.
Here is a photo of everything in place. The mast is supported by the perf tube aft, a piece of PVC cut to size in the middle, and a T (made of wood with a hole for the forward mast crutch) lashed to the bow pulpit (sorry, no pics of that end yet). There are "ribs" made of stiff tubing velcroed to the lifeline stanchions, and tennis balls tied to the tops of the stanchions.
Created 1/4/2004
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