For Crazy Dave: 212 Mast raising procedure from Hunter?

[SamLust]

Dave;

As our resident expert on these smaller Hunters I'm wondering if you have any recollection if Hunter published any recommendations on how they wanted the owner to use the supplied equipment to raise the mast on the 212?. If you look at my signiture you'll see I've had a boat or two. I get mast raising. I've made up several systems for several of those boats. In this case I'm trying to avoid reinventing the wheel. I have the so called "mini stays", and the gin pole. I'm wondering which connection point on the mast they use, and what means of lifting. That is, the main sheet or the trailer winch . Jib halyard or lower shrouds or roll furled jib stay or yet something else? On my jib halyard the head shackle eye is formed with a couple of hog rings rather than a real eye splice. Certainly don't trust that even a little and just don't feel like fixing that yet. (There are several other hog ring eye splices on the boat so I'm guessing they were original from Hunter. Not inspiring, but not surprising. It might have cost them an extra $5.00 for each one.) I'll be playing with setting up the boat for the first time tomorrow and figured I'd see what you might have. I've searched around and found nothing.

 

[Crazy Dave Condon]

Ted22480. Email him as he would be near you to see if he still has his 212 which appears that he trailered the boat from owner information under 212 looking at the owner list.

First do you have a mast raising pole with tackle and is there a cross brace over the cockpit for the mast to sit on during transport. Can that brace be raised. It has been a long time since I did that on this boat.

 

[isaksp00]

I have the 23 so can't comment on your rig, but I find it easier to raise (and lower) the mast with the jib removed from the furler foil. Just be careful not to bend (snap) that foil (as I say from experience). I also remove my (Harken brand) furler drum (which on the Harken, and I assume most systems, acts as the forestay turnbuckle). Then once I use the lifting rig (a pair of blocks, each with two pulleys) and gin pole to raise, I just put enough pressure on the blocks so I can easily spin on the drum.

 

[SamLust]

I have the mini shrouds which steady the mast side to side as it comes up. I have the factory supplied gin pole which has a hole at one end to attach to a fitting near the base of the mast and a pair of fairlead ears at the other end to connect whatever device I use for pulling and for attachment to whatever I chose to pull on on the mast. I do not know if there was anything else supplied with the mast raising system that I might be missing. The trailer does have the mast support crossbar. I have cracked my head on it three times and punched a hole in my back on the bolt that holds the mast support saddle. The boat does have the furling jib option. It is NOT a CDI foller furler. It has no foil. It is simply a small jib built on a luff wire with a Harken swivel at the top and a Harken drum swivel at the bottom. Not capable of reefing. Fully furled or fully open. A real throwback. I'm surprised and disappointed Hunter would use something this archaic but not surprised. This IS my third Hunter.

I saw the previous owner when I swapped his trailer license plate for the Loose gauge he had promised with the boat. I asked him what his method was. Mostly he used a loop of heavy rope on the outer end of the gin pole. He looped around the furler swivel drum and pulled on it with the trailer winch. Not my favorite method but I guess for now I can make it work. I was going to try to use the main sheet tackle untill I realized the lower end is bolted to the cockpit floor. Another previous owner did mount a winch and rope clutch on deck which my po was not sure was there for. I will try pulling with that, but most likely use the trailer winch until I get back to Forked River and grab one of my tackles from the shed.

Today is the day I do a trial run set-up to see what's what. If you hear screaming coming from the lower Hudson River Valley it might be me dropping the mast on my head.

 

[isaksp00]

Do you have an available jib halyard? I shackle that to the end of the gin pole (NOT the forestay, which lays loose), and then use whatever pulling rig works for you to pull the end of the gin pole down. That way, the jib halyard is supporting the mast which leaves the forestay and furler drum free for you to pin to the chain plate.

I can't picture a furler with no foil - maybe the smaller Harkens lacked this; it is also possible, I suppose, that the previous owner removed the foil?

 

[SamLust]

Furler

Isaksp00, before there were furlers with foils capable of reefing there were setups like what Hunter put on this boat. Frequently they were in addition to the regular head stay. Good for stowing the sail but not much else. Had an old Lancer that came like that. Changed it out for a real furled before the season was out.

 

[SamLust]

Well, I did get the mast up. There is a jib halyard. Tied it to the gin pole even though I'd prefer not to. Didn't dare use that shackle on an eye made with hog rings. Used the deck mounted winch added by a previous owner to pull. What a crappy setup. One person can not possibly push the mast back on the trailer mounted support and pin the mast foot to the pulpit. It's too close forward. I had to have my girlfriend push up on the mast to lighten it to enable me to put in the hinge pin. Some knucklehead installed the u bolts for the side supports too far forward and too high so there was no stabilization as the mast came up. Luckily I know how to drill holes in a boat. All in all disappointing, but I'll get it to work.

 

[isaksp00]

Same with the 23 - which has something like 33 ft mast. I cannot slide it back and pin it alone, as the transom mounted crutch is not back far enough - more than half the weight is aft of the crutch when positioned with the foot at the deck plate. Plus the top of the mast must be raised a good bit to angle the mast enough to clear the hatch cover. I also cannot raise it alone, despite having built baby stays to support it laterally - I need at least one other person to stabilize it until near vertical.
I love the photos in the owners manual that show a couple doing it alone.

 

[Crazy Dave Condon]

Pinning that mast on the 212 actually required for someone to be in the very back lifting the mast up which helped me a lot.

 

[howlingpack]

Hunter 212 mast raising question

What are the "short" stays used to stop the mast from swinging side to side while raising the mast. I used the gin pole with the wife's assistance but could not figure out the poor instructions or diagrams. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[carboman]

http://sailingtexas.com/Movies/maststepping.html

 

[JoeWhite]

I have posted the solution I use for the Hunter 25.5 .
Visit this link Mast Raising Harness

UPDATED: April 2019