Climbing the mast. I HAVE A PROBLEM!

[CharlieSea]

The stick is really easy to pull. Drop the main and the jib. The tough part is loosening the 2 set screws on the jib furling drum so you can raise the drum to loosen the forestay turnbuckle. If there is enough travel on the turnbuckle you can let the rig loose with out having to let off the other turn buckles so putting it back will not entail any re tuning. Count the number of turns on the forestay turnbuckle. Once the rig is down, check all the wiring. I changed the anchor/steaming light and the antenna including the wiring plus the light dc wiring. Check the internal furler. Check all your rigging and the spreaders. Check everything, it has been up there for 15 years. Replace as necessary. To remove the forestay you will take off the clevis pin. There are a lot of twisting motions on the pin and the fork. Check it and the cotter pin. It is the only thing holding up the entire rig. A new rig is $30K more or less. The mast is not a place for thrift.

 

[Tally Ho]

If you can find a beach in a calm cove, you can careen the boat: arrive at high tide, let the tide go out, and haul the mast down with the topping lift. I know, it's a bit crazy.

He is in Michigan. The tides aren’t too high there

Greg

 

[CharlieSea]

To pull the mast, use a crane service, forgot to say. The guy in Miami charges $175 each way. Maybe less if he is only pulling down long enough to run some halyards and doesn't have two setups. I've had my Hunter 356 mast sitting in the back yard and it took three big guys to get it there, unloading it from the transport truck. I could lift one end but not the whole thing. It is very heavy and not to mention over 50 feet long. Find a place to keep it for a few days while everything is inspected and replaced as need be then reinstall. Don't chintz on important stuff. A buddy on a 410 returned from almost Bimini without his rig. Don't know what failed but most likely the cotter pin on the forestay clevis pin let go and the clevis pin went away; there was absolutely nothing left at the forestay fitting. The insurance paid but it was inconvenient; he lost sails, boom, mast, bimini and all the rigging not to mention a tremendous scare.

 

[Jimongee]

Ok update; I read all your advice and went with the topping lift. Since it was still in place and I could clearly see with binoculars that the sheave it passed thru was exactly the same and side by side with the main halyard sheave..I used the topping lift to pull up the missing main halyard. Then I used the main halyard to hoist me in my chair aloft. Once up I dropped tracers and picked up the foresail halyard and topping lift. Been sailing in big wind for a few days now. All is well. Saved 500 by not pulling mast and maybe a bit more by handling the whole thing in 1 hour on a calm day at a dock. Thanks to all....

 

[CharlieSea]

OK, just to understand, you swapped the main halyard for the topping lift? So now it exits from where the topping lift did and the topping lift exits from the main halyard exit but only it uses the opposite sheeve at the top of the mast and ditto for the main halyard. How did that go with the turning blocks at the base of the mast? Wonder why you didn't use the topping lift to go up on? On my 356 the topping lift was a bit short and only got to the cleat on the mast. It's easy to just run a longer topping lift and temporarily change the routing at the base of the mast. Seems that is always there to use to go up the mast.