One of the disadvantages of the New England climate is the 6-month sailing season. Over Thanksgiving weekend we took down the mast, put up the frame, and then covered the boat. Now she's hibernating until March 2023 when we start to wake her up.
Boat is Hibernating
- Thread starter SawyerCurt
- Start date
jssailem
SBO Weather and Forecasting Forum Jim & John
- Oct 22, 2014
- 23,127
Like Real Estate, sailing is all about Location, Location, Location.
The cover that came with the boat when I purchased her back in 2014 is a mast-down cover, so I've taken the mast down all but I think 2 years when the schedule didn't work out and I had her shrink-wrapped instead. I do usually have a few chores each year with the mast as a result of looking it over, plus it forces me to work all the turn-buckles. I know I could just get the cover modified, but the cost of the crane for take down / put up is only a little higher than the cost to shrink-wrap.
We had to haul out early (October) due to the low lake level and the reach of our crane. The prediction for next season doesn't look good either. I picked a good time to strip the bottom paint and start anew. When Bella wakes up she'll have a nice new bottom.
I, for one, long for global warming….to the point Lake Michigan doesn’t freeze and Tally Ho can stay in the water all year!
Winter sucks!
Greg
Winter sucks!
Greg
In my limited experience, I've found that this depends on the boat. For mine, the connections are in the base of the mast. So when we take the mast down (or put it up) the crane has to hold the mast about a foot over the deck while I deal with the connections. I only have three--the VHF, the TV Antenna (which I've actually taken off the top of the mast, but I left the cable), and a multi-prong connector for the 3 lights on the mast (the masthead light, steaming light, and a deck light that doesn't work anymore). For another guy in our club, however, his connections were inside the compression post. When he took his mast down last year he had all kinds of trouble trying to pull the cables out of the post to get to the connections. So I think it just depends on the boat.
Curt, the boat looks nice and clean and my wife is envious of the cover, ours only goes to the deck top, hence we shrink wrap her to keep her dry and warm all winter, We hauled out end of September as the weather gets really ugly on the Great Lakes and by the time we get everything out and her winterized it is mid November. We look forward to the winter off for travel etc-This year went up the Mississippi on Viking-Great Trip. But we also look forward to splashing her again in March!
I got some feed back about this very subject: Interesting read.
skippersplan.com
Winter Storage: Sailboat Masts, Up or Down? - Gallagher Skippers' Plan
In yacht clubs across Canada, as sailboats are hauled-out and winterized, the question always comes up: Should the mast remain up during the winter, or de-masted and stored separately? The answer? “As in most questions related to insurance the answer is: it depends, so contact your boat...
skippersplan.com