It was a PROFANITY FILTER sort of day!

[rgranger]

So I went to the marina today... beautiful day ... a little warm but not too bad. My goal was to raise the mast on my new-2-me H26. I had put it in a slip two weekends ago. So, the plan was to step the mast, set all of the cushions and get her set up for some nice weekend over night sail camping trips....The mast is half way up when the hook on one of the baby stays bends straight, pops out and my mast slowly falls over the starboard gunwale. Broke the mast foot, and bent the heck out of the gin pole.

On the plus side, no one got hurt and somehow my mast managed to miss the extremely well maintained boat in the neighboring slip. Could have been a much worse day.

I think I can straighten the gin pole but wonder if the integrity is now compromised. I'm thinking it is.... same goes for the baby stay hook. The mast foot broke free but somehow only managed to damage two of the ears that the pop rivets went into. I think I can drill new holes and set some ss screws... maybe JB Weld the entire dang thing in place. Looking at my calendar... I don't think I'm getting back on the water until September.... Dang!!!!!!!!!!

The guy on the port slip was lowering his mast (A Mac 26X) and made it look so easy I felt like a dope.... but then he smashed his boat's bow up on the trailer as he was leaving so... I felt bad for him.... he also broke the bow support board off of his trailer and had some nasty bolts showing that would have gouged his hull further... so we sacrificed an old life jacket under the bow to protect it.
I don't know if I should count this as my first dismasting...

The first pic, is my baby stay's hook. It is supposed to be much more hook-shaped than that.... the second is my gin pole. I didn't snap a pic of the mast base... I was too hot and dehydrated at the time I left the marina today.

 

[Doug J]

Sorry to hear about this. As you said it could have been much worse. Hardware can be replaced. Glad nobody got hurt!
Regarding the baby stay hooks. Mine has a T-Bolt on one end that connects to the mast, just like the shrouds. The other end has pelican hooks. Yours doesn't have pelican hooks?

If it were me, I wouldn't trust the gin pole again I'd get a new one.

 

[rgranger]

Sorry to hear about this. As you said it could have been much worse. Hardware can be replaced. Glad nobody got hurt!
Regarding the baby stay hooks. Mine has a T-Bolt on one end that connects to the mast, just like the shrouds. The other end has pelican hooks. Yours doesn't have pelican hooks?

If it were me, I wouldn't trust the gin pole again I'd get a new one.

I have pelican hooks for the connection to the stantion base... those hooks go into little holes on the mast. I was being really careful and really slow... I'd go and check the tension on each stay, and make sure nothing was hung up. The only extra tension on that particular stay was the roller furler and genoa. They were laying on it as I raised the mast... but that does not seem like a lot of tension to me. I was using the winch. In hind sight, I might have felt the tension on that stay better if I had been manually pulling it up. That last two times I stepped this mast, it went up very easily. This time seemed to be going well also.... when all went wrong fast....

 

[justsomeguy]

Doug J's right, the gin pole is toast. Sorry.
Why do you suppose the baby stay hook went south, and was it at the deck connection, or the mast?

I have pelican hooks for the connection to the stantion base.

Ah, it was on the mast.

 

[Siamese]

I don't understand why the baby stay was under so much tension that it's the hook bent. Did the mast start to sway to one side? Side to side motion is certainly the thing to watch out for and control when raising a mast.

 

[rgranger]

I don't understand why the baby stay was under so much tension that it the hook bent. Did the mast start to sway to one side? Side to side motion is certainly the thing to watch out for and control when raising a mast.

Yeah... I'm still trying to figure it out. When the stay popped... the mast actually stayed still for about 45 seconds... I was actually thinking of going into the cabin to get a line to replace the stay... then it started to slowly drift to starboard... but only after the wake of a jet ski rocked my boat. I certainly want to understand this before I try raising the mast again. It is not like this is a new design or something so I must have overlooked something. One thing I can learn in hind-sight... is that I should have immediately lowered the mast back into it's cradle. That would have saved the gin pole and mast foot.

 

[rgranger]

.... and my windex....

 

[Doug J]

With a baby stay gone, you wouldn't have been able to lower the mast safely without holding the mast from falling to the side. It really seems to me something must have been snagged to put that much tension on the hook to bend it. I use the winch all the time. It's vital you check all lines as the mast is raised. You probably snagged something and did not notice it and put a lot of pressure on it. I would not want be without T-Bolts and I also use those rubber plugs just like on the baby stays to be sure they don't pop out.

 

[rgranger]

.... I would not want be without T-Bolts and I also use those rubber plugs just like on the baby stays to be sure they don't pop out.

Doug
What year is your H26? I have the T-Bolts for the other stays and I'm wondering if maybe this is a design upgrade that got fixed in later years. I have a 1995.

I think you are correct, I must have snagged something..... but I really did walk around the boat and check things every few turns on the winch. So I'm still struggling to figure it out. I was past 45 degrees and in the home stretch....

What do you do with your roller furler an genoa when you lift the mast? I had mine laying on that stay and being pushed forward as I raised the mast. I can't imagine that was the problem but that is the only thing that was putting pressure on that stay.

Before this boat, I had a Balboa 26. The mast raising system was almost the same except the boom became the gin pole.....and for the baby stays I just used ratchet straps. they worked great. However on that boat, the babyh stays attached to the gin pole instead of the mast.....Ratchet straps are nylon so they also have some stretch in them so I'm thinking.... ??????? might be a good substitute.

I don't know..... I think the current system should have worked just fine.... Maybe once I'm rested and rehydrated, I need to go back to the boat and investigate further. I must have done something stupid but right now I can't figure it out.

 

[Doug J]

My H26 is a 94'. I don't think the roller furler and Genoa had anything to do with it. I think something got snagged, or maybe the pelican hook got turned in the wrong position. I have raised my mast with the head sail attached and without. The only thing about having the sail already attached is a little added weight. I believe the store here sells baby stays. You'll have to go elsewhere to get the rubber plugs, though they do sell those little tab things. I don't think I like them much though. In my opinion the rubber plugs are the way to go. I would strongly recommend T-Bolts with rubber plugs, they can't come out and they are strong. There should not be a lot of tension on the baby stays, they are just there to keep the mast from falling left or right, not too much tension there.

 

[Doug J]

A couple more points. I would not go with ratchet straps, just get the correct baby stays. There is no need for any stretching. With regard to the furler. I do tie a short rope from the drum to the end of the gin pole just enough to keep the drum from dragging on the deck, but leave it long enough that I can reach it to untie it when the pole is vertical.

 

[rgranger]

Thanks...

Not sure I have a lead yet but more to think about.... maybe you are correct in thinking the hook got turned the wrong way. I can't test that theory now but it makes sense.... I had Crazy Dave show me his tricks on lowering and raising the mast... he spent an afternoon with me.... and he made a big deal about which direction the pelican hooks were connected... front to back....I followed that but I don't know if I checked the mast-hooks once I started raising the mast. I can't see how they would get turned but maybe something went side-ways.

 

[isaksp00]

I find it easier to raise and lower my H23 mast with the jib removed from the furler. Once I attach the tackle used to lower the mast and tighten it I remove the (Harken) furler drum/turnbuckle entirely, so only the forestay inside the foils is involved.

 

[Tony_Furst]

I'm also wondering if being in the water and the added sway from the water had something to do with it. My previous boat a Catalina 22 and now my Hunter 23.5 had very similar mast raising rigs and I never had issues but I never tried doing it when they were in the water, only on the trailer at the ramp or in my driveway.

 

[Siamese]

Doesn't take much of an upset to make that mast swing like a bat.

 

[isaksp00]

+1 to Tony_Furst. I have only ever raised or lowered on the trailer, and am not sure I could even really do it afloat.

 

[Crazy Dave Condon]

rgranger;

time to call grandpa on this one. send me a private message and I will call. Mast raising pole is toast so order a new one. Photo of mast foot needed so send one to me. Hook is stainless steel and that is toast. Order a new baby stay and photo of the mast where it attaches to. Need to go over mast raising with you.

 

[All U Get]

On the gin pole do you have lines to port and starboard to keep it centered while pulling toward the bow? You're right about rigging getting tangled. My friend's Mac would always find a way to snag the cooler in the cockpit while we were on the bow raising the mast.

All U Get

Slow typing, is Crazy Dave your grandpa?

 

[woodster]

On the gin pole do you have lines to port and starboard to keep it centered while pulling toward the bow? You're right about rigging getting tangled. My friend's Mac would always find a way to snag the cooler in the cockpit while we were on the bow raising the mast.

All U Get

well ya just gotta have a cooler no matter what ya do

 

[kito]

Just curious, was that a Hunter designed gin pole? Just comparing the diameter of it in your hand it looks a little puny for a 26 foot boat. Looks maybe 1-1/4" OD?