Electric Mast Stepping

[Smiling Couple]

I love the Catalina 18 but getting a little old to manually Step the Mast. The Norther Freight 2500 winch did the trick. Mounted the winch inside the cabin and ran the cable to pulley attached to the front cleat. Really works well when stepping the mast for bridges and underway.
I attached the shelf using 2 swim platform braces attached to the cabin supports.

 

[Project_Mayhem]

Nice! I did almost the same thing with an ATV winch but attached it to my trailer. My cable is currently jammed between the spool and the gearbox housing. I assume your cleat block keeps it from getting jammed?

Should you accidentally lose the wireless remote a new remote and receiver unit can be ordered from ebay. Wire colors should match up (hence the reason for no instructions)

 

[Smiling Couple]

I used bought the mounting plate to attach the roller guide infront of the winch and the pulley keeps it straight. I had a binding problem also until I went to the Synthetic winch line. What an improvement and wont rip your sails. lol Thanks for the remote advice, lost my remote and bought a whole unit again.

 

[Project_Mayhem]

Raising the mast barely stresses my little ATV winch so I know this thing has loads of power that can cause damage. I never though about raising sails with it. Have you tried pulling up an anchor?

 

[Smiling Couple]

I have used this winch to raise and lower the mast. I don't go tight with it, I grab the roller furler to finish the last 3 inches. I am in salt water so did not use the cable when anchoring but I have use the Synthetic winch rope cable to lower and raise the anchor. Very helpful when anchoring is tight spaces.

I looked for a less powerful winch but for $49 this works well. The smaller anchor winches I looked at were expensive

Cable is non forgiving so I changed to the Synthetic rope and cut down on weight.

 

[Project_Mayhem]

Wow that's cheap! Where'd you find one for $49? I just checked Northern Tool and Harbor Freight.

I noticed that mine doesnt have any kind of brake so a heavy load could slip back. The gears do provide quite a bit of resistance but it's something that should be noted

 

[Smiling Couple]

Harbor Freight runs the $49.00 special. The smallest 2500 does have a gear break and handle for free spooling. I can stop in mid lift to adjust the stays without it budging. That's in high winds and waves. The Synthetic Rope was only $26.00. If you use the original cable take about 20' off the spool and you don't get the jamming. The 50' Synthetic rope fits better on the spool than the cable. By the time I cut the cable and made the new hook loop it would have cost more than the Synthetic Rope. If your worried about damage use a line snubber to give you a little more space if you do get it too tight.

 

[Project_Mayhem]

That's good to hear about the cable length and synthetic line working. There is a single ferrule on the winch end of the cable in the event that you need to shorten it for a more reasonable price.

The ATV winch holds the cable in place with the minimal loads I put on it. I did use it once to help adjust the boat's position on the trailer at the ramp. It was struggling a lot. The battery was near the end of it's life so I'm sure that also had an impact on its performance. That boat is a Starwind 19 that weighs about 1600 lbs with gear.

 

[Hunter216]

Just for reference for anyone reading this thread. The original poster of this method used it for a Hunter 216. I used his post to create a similar setup for my boat. Works great and takes the stress out of mast handling. The old “use your head not your back strategy!”

https://hunter.sailboatowners.com/mods.php?task=article&mid=68&aid=7722&mn=216