Freedom for trailor sailors?

[emergpa1]

Trailerable sailboats are all about freedom. Freedom from slip fees. Freedom from yard fees. Freedom to go anywhere you want. But for three years i have been bothered by the fact that i was a trailer sailor anchored to the marina. The reason? Stepping the mast. I have no way to pack up and go cuz my mast won't cooperate. Every time I think about taking the boat off to some new waters, there is that mast, sticking up in the air as if my boat is giving me the big middle finger and saying, " He'll no I ain't going anywhere!".
So for a while I have been reading with green envy every post about mast raising. Lucky Rbone! Lucky Trinka! Lucky everybody but me. So this week I decided to try to fashion a mast raising system. I decided to go with an a frame like rich. So I put together a not so stable mast crutch, and a not so stable a-frame, and finally i managed to, after several multiple hours of work and tinkering....... dump my mast off the port side of the boat bending my mast plate and tabernackle int the process. I think it is fixable but I am going to need to remove it, hammer it flat, and re- seat the whole thing. I spent the remainder of the evening re,working the a frame to make it more stable by bolting the foot of it to a block then bolting that(not lashing) it to the stanchion bases. Then I reinforced the stern mast crutch by making a crossarm and attaching that to both the crutch and the stern rail. By then it was dark and I did not get to re-try the mast dumping technique I learned earlier. Tomorrow back to work so it will be next week before I try again.
I have made a lot of mistakes through the years....but I have found that if I am careful, and pay close attention, I can usually repeat them several more times!
Keith
Bummer!

 

[Joe11688]

I'm so sorry to hear about this mishap Keith. Believe me when I tell you. If there's anything I can do to assist you, don't hesitate to contact me. I wouldn't give up on this dream of being able to trailer your 26. There are guys on this forum who trailer 25s and there really isn't that much difference between these two models. It's just a matter of coming up with a good system that will work for you. It can be an A frame like Rich has, or it could be temporary pivot bridles with baby stays using you boom for a Gin Pole to raise over the bow like my friend Ray does on his 1986 O'Day 26. He has the triangular plates connected to his side stays. You could also go with a Gin Pole set up similar to mine with the bridles and baby stays. They will all work, but it's going to take some careful planning and strong construction. I have pics and info that I would be glad to send you just for the asking. Just don't give up on it. Once you have a firm understanding of the principle of mast raising/lowering, this procedure can be achieved.
Joe

 

[RichBone]

Right Keith, We're here for you. Talk to us. As much as you've accomplished on My Girl so far there's no reason to be down on yourself. We've all made mistakes. It's how you recover that counts.

Rich

 

[Shoaldrafter]

Keith are you left handed?

Right Keith, We're here for you. Talk to us. As much as you've accomplished on My Girl so far there's no reason to be down on yourself. We've all made mistakes. It's how you recover that counts.

Rich

I do not know what all the issues of raising a mast on an O'Day 26 are about.

In the archives is that diagram how to raise an O'Day 25 mast. Instructions referred to triangle plates. Humm, I do not have such animal.

So I attached boom as directions said. Rigged main sheet as instructions said. Move mast to tabernacle and put on pin thru to act as hinge.

With mast resting on bow pulpit, I had helper start mast upward. I used mainsheet and winch and after it started up, up she went with just me working mainsheet and winch. I used cleat on main sheet to make sure line did not slip backward. My helper said that he was not really needed.

I have raised mast on other boats using same technique so I was not surprised that the system as described in O'Day instructions worked.

The stays were all attached except for backstay. Using mainsheet and winch tighted mast to allow insertion of second pin and connecting backstay.

I have not used system as described in reverse because I hood wink two helpers or onlookers to help using just line and block from main sheet to lower. Just have to be careful not to twist stays or bend fittings.

Naturally this would not be done in wind or gust. This is not rocket science. Two guys can handle the mast on this boat. It does not take a crane.

Ed K

 

[RECESS]

I am really sorry to read this Keith. You can fix it all in short order. Find a Oday 25 on her last leg and scoop up the mast.

After we raised our mast several times on the Oday 25 the wife really did not like it. She is alright with raising it a few times a year. We keep it on a lake for the winter but we will soon move it to Carabelle and keep it on the trailer with mast up and put it in the water when we are using it. My wife told me to find a 22 that we could use for road trips and short stays, 2 - 5 days. I found a Catalina that needs some TLC for $1200. They both have their roles. We plan to sail from Carabelle to the Keys for 5 weeks in June on the Oday 25. The 22 is so much easier to raise the mast and never feel like the mast is at the mercy of a gust of wind. I still use my gin pole but I have friends that raise theirs with a 12v winch and the mast goes up in seconds.

The real sickness is I am enjoying bringing the Catalina up to par now that we will be moving our trips over to the Oday. It is hard work but for some freakish reason I love doing it. I power washed the bottom and for the last week I have been sanding the bottom to bare bones.

Get back on that horse and enjoy fixing her.

This has been my week everyday after work, one piece at a time.

 

[OdayDave]

Hi Keith -

As the saying goes, s%#t happens. I bent the plate on my 222 when I first started experimenting with a mast raising system. The base plate of the mast should have an aluminum barrel into which a screw attaches the plate to the base of the mast. That barrel is designed to fail when the mast torques to either side, preventing a bend in the mast, at least from the torque of the mast going off to the side. From what you describe, the damage is to the plate (easily fixed) and the tabernacle (also repairable at low cost). I fixed mine after I made a similar mistake on the 222. And while perfecting the system may not be "rocket science", if it were easy to create a fail-safe system, we wouldn't need to turn to this forum for help. The suggestion to get a couple people to help as you are experimenting with a new system is good advice, but I do think if you want to trailer sail quite a bit, you need to get it to the point where you can raise the mast without help if needed.

I have seen the great work you have done on your boat over the years and I'm sure you will get this thing perfected like most everything else on your boat. Good luck and keep us posted.

Dave
O'Days 222 and 25

 

[Joe11688]

Keith,
I just posted some pics on one of these threads on this forum. Check them out. The last six pictures were taken last fall when I pulled my boat out of the water at the club.

Joe

 

[emergpa1]

Good morning guys, and thanks for all the good advice and consolation. I am working this weekend on through most of next week, except for tuesday, so i will not get to do much with the boat. I did take a couple of hours yesterday and remove the mast plate (tabernacle?) from the boat, drill out and fill the holes, and have it ready to reseat. I am going to use butyl rubber this time. The deck where i repaird looked great and no problems there
Dave, I think you are right, the base plate of the mast is just bent on the corner a little, and is pulled away from the bottom of the mast just a bit, but i think that when i put the mast back on that it will straighten back out..but what you said about the aluminum barrel give me a good idea of how to inspect it. i was curious about that one screw in the bottom of the plate going up into the mast. But so far, i havn't had much time to check it out closely. The mast didn't go all the way over the side and was just beginning to sway out past the lifelines, being only a little way off the crutch. Ii managed to somehow swing it back into line, get it to hover over the crutch, and lower it back down.
It pulled up the tabernacle a bit, and bent the plate at the base of the mast. I am lucky it didnt pull me over the side and onto the pavement.
Ed, i am intrigued by the way you lift you mast. I too have seen that technique in the manual for the 26. It looks pretty easy and straight forward. But i have notice that most have used some system to raise it from the aft crutch. I think i chose that because i could attach a crutch to the stern rail more readily than to the pulpit, and i thought that the Aframe would give some lateral stability to the mast while lifting. The A frame lever would not be possible to use on the rear of the boat. Also, there would be more mast sticking off the bow of the boat than the stearn, since the tabernacle is forward of midline. That could mean that the mast would be likely to want to topple over the pulpit and hard for a one man system to control. Still i am likely to give it a try, with a few hands to help. It sure looks simple enough, and all the equipment is right there on the boat.
Thanks again guys for the kind words, good advice, and moral support. This is a great forum!
keith
P.S. My wife is likely to say ok to being at the rOnDAYvu this year. Any body going?

 

[25yearslater]

Barring any really, really, really big disaster, like bubonic plague, I'll be there.

 

[Shoaldrafter]

reply to Emergency

Good morning guys, and thanks for all the good advice and consolation. I am working this weekend on through most of next week, except for tuesday, so i will not get to do much with the boat. I did take a couple of hours yesterday and remove the mast plate (tabernacle?) from the boat, drill out and fill the holes, and have it ready to reseat. I am going to use butyl rubber this time. The deck where i repaird looked great and no problems there
Dave, I think you are right, the base plate of the mast is just bent on the corner a little, and is pulled away from the bottom of the mast just a bit, but i think that when i put the mast back on that it will straighten back out..but what you said about the aluminum barrel give me a good idea of how to inspect it. i was curious about that one screw in the bottom of the plate going up into the mast. But so far, i havn't had much time to check it out closely. The mast didn't go all the way over the side and was just beginning to sway out past the lifelines, being only a little way off the crutch. Ii managed to somehow swing it back into line, get it to hover over the crutch, and lower it back down.
It pulled up the tabernacle a bit, and bent the plate at the base of the mast. I am lucky it didnt pull me over the side and onto the pavement.
Ed, i am intrigued by the way you lift you mast. I too have seen that technique in the manual for the 26. It looks pretty easy and straight forward. But i have notice that most have used some system to raise it from the aft crutch. I think i chose that because i could attach a crutch to the stern rail more readily than to the pulpit, and i thought that the Aframe would give some lateral stability to the mast while lifting. The A frame lever would not be possible to use on the rear of the boat. Also, there would be more mast sticking off the bow of the boat than the stearn, since the tabernacle is forward of midline. That could mean that the mast would be likely to want to topple over the pulpit and hard for a one man system to control. Still i am likely to give it a try, with a few hands to help. It sure looks simple enough, and all the equipment is right there on the boat.
Thanks again guys for the kind words, good advice, and moral support. This is a great forum!
keith
P.S. My wife is likely to say ok to being at the rOnDAYvu this year. Any body going?

Keith,

The only problem I had was initially hooking mast to first pin. Weight of mast does not allow it to rest without help holding in place to insert pin. If you had to do it by yourself, you need sandbag to weight short end of mast. Other wise you are using the boom as a gin pole. Topping lift acts as arm to take weight of lifting. What this means is that you are realling pulling the top of mast with the main sheet.

I recommend using large vise to straighten bent parts of base. If you do not have one, borrow the five minutes it takes from local garage or maybe marina.

I am selling my 26. I now have a 28 foot boat that is not trailerable, but will make the wife happier.

However, I am selling a sailing ready boat, not parts.

Ed K

 

[Joe11688]

Keith,

The only problem I had was initially hooking mast to first pin. Weight of mast does not allow it to rest without help holding in place to insert pin. If you had to do it by yourself, you need sandbag to weight short end of mast. Other wise you are using the boom as a gin pole. Topping lift acts as arm to take weight of lifting. What this means is that you are realling pulling the top of mast with the main sheet.

I recommend using large vise to straighten bent parts of base. If you do not have one, borrow the five minutes it takes from local garage or maybe marina.

I am selling my 26. I now have a 28 foot boat that is not trailerable, but will make the wife happier.

However, I am selling a sailing ready boat, not parts.

Ed K

Ed,
We had a new member a couple of years ago with an O'Day 25 who had the "fix" for supporting the top heavy mast. He used a home made mast crutch in the bed of his pick up truck to support the mast while he pinned the tabernacle. It's not as good as a sky hook, but it was the next best thing.

 

[Shoaldrafter]

Old Fuzzy Face

Ed,
We had a new member a couple of years ago with an O'Day 25 who had the "fix" for supporting the top heavy mast. He used a home made mast crutch in the bed of his pick up truck to support the mast while he pinned the tabernacle. It's not as good as a sky hook, but it was the next best thing.

Joe,

But my method works to fix light at dock. I too old to shimmy, how about you?

Ed K

 

[emergpa1]

Keith,

The only problem I had was initially hooking mast to first pin. Weight of mast does not allow it to rest without help holding in place to insert pin. If you had to do it by yourself, you need sandbag to weight short end of mast. Other wise you are using the boom as a gin pole. Topping lift acts as arm to take weight of lifting. What this means is that you are realling pulling the top of mast with the main sheet.

I recommend using large vise to straighten bent parts of base. If you do not have one, borrow the five minutes it takes from local garage or maybe marina.

I am selling my 26. I now have a 28 foot boat that is not trailerable, but will make the wife happier.

However, I am selling a sailing ready boat, not parts.

Ed K

I'm sure going to give your ideas a try. I do have a vice. I have two more shifts to put in at work then will have a couple of days to check things out.

Do you have your o'day listed with pix on this website? What is the 28?

Keith

 

[Joe11688]

Joe,

But my method works to fix light at dock. I too old to shimmy, how about you?

Ed K

I'm 37 lbs lighter than I was a couple of years ago and I too am too old to shimmy up a mast but what we're talking about is raising a mast at the ramp on an O'Day 26. Keith wants to be able to trailer his boat which involves being able to raise or lower his mast by himself. I think it can be done with the right equipment.
Joe

 

[Joe11688]

I'm afraid that it's too far for me to go to Keith.

Keith,
Does your O'Day 26 have the triangular metal plates on the stays? My friend Ray has them on his 1986 OD 26. The plates are used for keeping the boom centered when it's being used as a Gin Pole to raise/lower the mast. It's true. If you raise the mast over the bow, the mast will be top heavy when it's about to be pinned to the tabernacle. Ray usually uses his weight to hold it down until the pin is inserted. His wife or his brother in-law usually mans the winch with the rope from the mainsheet going around it.