Demast Yearly?

Alan · Sep 11, 2009

No, I think you about covered it. Damage and cost are my single biggest concerns. I take my rig down every tens years for a thorough inspection but other than that I see no advantage to taking it down.

Joe · Sep 11, 2009

Isn't the procedure called stepping, or unstepping the mast? I'm not that anal about terminology.... but saying demast is similar to dismast which is not a good thing. Hey, if I'm wrong... sorry... I was just curious.

Regarding your question, I live in an area where people customarily leave their boats in the water year round.... so I can't really contribute. My only comment is "what do the other boatowners do in your area?"

tommays · Sep 12, 2009

Around here its marina dependent as many have to step the mast to reach the storage area .

I have down to many marinas during storms and at least on the bigger boats it really stresses the boat and jack stands and i have there have been more than a few boats go over .

In this area ALL the marinas have riders about NOT being responsible for boats damaged from being knocked over with the mast UP

Joe · Sep 12, 2009

Scup said:
The yards around here refer to demasting, so that's the term I used. I prefer the terms stepping and unstepping myself.

That makes sense.... Thanks

Joseph Shirley · Sep 13, 2009

I now leave my mast in all year round as we sail all year round. But when I lived in New England I would unstep it and store it over the boat. The bonus was that I had the boat lifted onto a trailer, and moved it to my yard. When I did that, the boat yard did not submit my name to the tax people, and I never got a tax bill for the boat.

Good luck

Joe S

shemandr · Sep 14, 2009

Yards around here prefer to "Demast" and a few require it. But at $7.50 to $10 per foot of the mast and another similar charge to remast its really expensive. Worse, usually they cut the wires, and now I have Radar. And, I've seen them nearly kill a yard worker because they aren't that good at handling a mast. They like power boats.
I leave it up mostly. This year I would like to clean and wax it, change the lights up top to LED and put an AM radio antenna up and generally check out the rig, so I am struggling with the decision.
Can anyone tell me if the radar wiring can be easily re connected after the goons cut it?

Gail R · Sep 15, 2009

I guess it depends on where you are. We take the stick down every year. A big reason is because we have the boat transported to our house and it has to cross under several bridges, power lines, etc., so the mast must be down.

But there are other reasons to take the stick down. My biggest one (other than the transportation logistics) is that you cannot effectively cover a sailboat with the stick on. It's virtually impossible to completely seal around the shrouds. This could cause moisture from rain/snow to come down the shrouds and settle in around turnbuckles and other key areas. Add a few freeze/thaw expand/contract cycles and IMHO, you could be setting yourself up for rig failure.

There's also reduced windage with the mast down. That's important if you live in an area with lots of nasty weather.

So here in the great white north, most of us store with the rig down. Yes there is some added expense and hassle involved, but we care about our boats.

BTW, we're fortunate to be able to step/unstep our own mast with a crane at our town landing. So it's free or nearly free (a few beers for the helpers).

sand sailor · Sep 17, 2009

i t doesnt cost me anything but time to do it myself made a really cool hinge step but i leave it up unless we're hitting the road with it .
last month i brought it home to work on it ,I'll take it back to the lake next month when it cools down some more it lives on the trailer at the lake when not sailing

sinnettc · Sep 18, 2009

Find a new yard!

shemandr said:
Worse, usually they cut the wires, and now I have Radar.
Can anyone tell me if the radar wiring can be easily re connected after the goons cut it?

How stoopid can they be? If they cut any wire on my boat I'd be slapping them with a bill for an AYBC electrician plus repair of any other damage they cost. jeez!

chuckwayne · Sep 18, 2009

Re: Find a new yard!

Shermandr,
It depends on the radar. I think your 356 is the same vintage as ours, so if you have Raymarine Rl series radar the answer is yes. Our mast wires come to a terminal strip below the wire cover on deck, so to remove the mast we just have to open the cover, disconnect the wires and pull the stick. The newer ethernet based wiring cannot be cut and spliced like the analog systems

Maine Sail · Sep 18, 2009

If you live in the North

If you live in the North, here's a good reason...

Lower swage cracked due to freeze thaw cycles..

shemandr · Sep 21, 2009

ChuckWayne
I took the cover plate off the liner around the compression post and viola, there are my wiring connections. I'll disconnect all and pull them out of the deck before releasing the boat for demasting.

Gail R · Sep 21, 2009

sinnettc said:
How stoopid can they be? If they cut any wire on my boat I'd be slapping them with a bill for an AYBC electrician plus repair of any other damage they cost. jeez!

No kidding! If the yard workers cut the wires, they ought to be held accountable!

Funny the terminology "demasting." To me that sounds too much like "dismasting" which is when your rig comes down when it's not supposed to.

We've had horrendous experiences with yard crews and masts. The first and only time we let the yard monkeys unstep our mast ended badly. My husband wanted to be there for the procedure, but arrived at the yard a few minutes late. The yard monkeys had neglected to attach the mast to the crane before they pulled the pins. CRASH! Mast went down onto the ground. Apparently the concept of a deck-stepped mast was foreign to them.

I give the yard credit for springing for a new mast and R/F unit, but my husband put ALL the mast fittings on himself, just so it could be done right.

So the following spring, it came time to step the mast. This time we got there on time. Good thing we did, because the yard monkeys were having trouble fitting the cables into the bottom of the mast and got their wire cutters out. My husband saw what was going on and (fortunately) got to them before they could cut anything, and he stuffed the wires up into the hole at the bottom of the mast. Yes it was tight, but it was doable.

For these and other reasons, I do not consider "yard maintained" to be a good selling point when I look at ads for boats.

Scott T-Bird · Sep 21, 2009

Yard Monkeys ...

If I'm ever so pretentious and obnoxious as to use that term to call the people who work at the boat yard where I store my boat, I hope they DO drop the mast on my head. Is there any need to wonder why sailboat owners come with a reputation that causes many marinas to discourage our patronage?

Scup, in our climate, I would estimate that far more boats in our size and up (I have a 27' Starwind with a 33' stick) store with the mast up rather than down. I think most people only take the mast down for periodic maintenance or special projects. I have a custom cover and leave the boom on for tenting, although I also fabricated a frame to shed snow more easily.

You may have a little more extreme winter weather and more snow if you are in that snow belt across the southeast side of the lake. I would poll the people around you for a better read on the situation.

Scott B · Sep 21, 2009

This discussion comes up every year right about this same time for some reason....

Most of the boats leave their mast up in our area. There are many variations on shrink wrap, tarps, custom or heavy silver or none at all.

I used shrink wrap before but is now too expensive, last year I used a heavy agricultural tarp and installed it steep and tight. Wasn't pretty, but survived while many others blew off or collapsed.