Dose anyone have the hinged mast setup, I think it comes out of S. Cal? Any input from anyone on this system?
Larry V-2761
Larry V-2761
Hinged Mast:
- Thread starter lewills30
- Start date
My vega's mast could be lowered by removing one bolt and using suitable ropes, pulleys and bits of wood! It had what I think is called a tabernacle? It worked fine but a two man job to get it up and down.
John
John
We have a hinge on Buffa which was fitted when the boat was moved to the
Norfolk Broads by it's previous owner about ten years ago. The idea being
to give the facility to lower the mast for going under bridges etc. I
think the process would be fine with a couple of able bodied people but
frankly we found it rather frightening!
In the two years we had the boat on the Broads we only lowered the mast a
few times and had challenges as many times as we didn't. I guess if we had
persevered then we may have won through.
As well as the tabernacle we also have an 'A' frame fitted which is
attached to the deck at about the same distance forward as the mast with
its apex at the bow. The process we followed was
- First to attach a block and tackle arrangement between the apex of the A
frame and the bow of the boat with a line feeding back to a winch at the
back.
- Transfer the forestay (in our case the furling jib) from the bow to the A
frame.
- Disconnect the forward two shrouds(they had quick release arrangements)
then gently lower. To be fair there was so much friction in the system
that the lowering wen pretty well and was easy to control.
- Once the mast was down and resting on it's crutch on the pushpit we
tidied shrouds etc and motored off.
We found motoring with the mast down really unpleasant, the shrouds were
always in the way and generally only a thing to be done for a short period
of time (just to get under that bridge).
To put the mast up we effectively reversed the process but it was on these
occasions that we had our challenges. The big one was when the tabernacle
pulled out of the cabin roof! This was less than pleasant as the top of
the mast ended up in the river and took quite a bit of sorting out! What
had happened was that the tabernacle had been fixed to the coach roof with
great big screws but as I understand it the roof is only made of a foam
sandwich so after a while the screws just pulled out! Buffa now has four
big bolts right through the coach roof with great big washers on the
underside.
The other issue we had was that the shrouds always seem to be in the way.
On one occasion I was winding the winch to lift the mast, she stuck and in
one of my less impressive moments I carried on winding assuming that this
was just a little glitch. Unfortunately what had happened was that a shroud
had caught round a spreader and I managed to pull the spreader off (broke
the hound). Fortunately Steve was able to supply a replacement.
I'd say it took us an hour to get the mast down and put it back up again
and I really didn't like it. Now Buffa is on the sea I'm planning never to
do that again - I probably should get rid of the A frame!
To my way of thinking raising and lowering the mast of a Vega can be done
and would be OK with two reasonably strong people but on balance I suspect
that this was never the intention for the Vega and not really a good idea
if it can be avoided.
So that's my experience - others of course may have had different ones!
Mark
Norfolk Broads by it's previous owner about ten years ago. The idea being
to give the facility to lower the mast for going under bridges etc. I
think the process would be fine with a couple of able bodied people but
frankly we found it rather frightening!
In the two years we had the boat on the Broads we only lowered the mast a
few times and had challenges as many times as we didn't. I guess if we had
persevered then we may have won through.
As well as the tabernacle we also have an 'A' frame fitted which is
attached to the deck at about the same distance forward as the mast with
its apex at the bow. The process we followed was
- First to attach a block and tackle arrangement between the apex of the A
frame and the bow of the boat with a line feeding back to a winch at the
back.
- Transfer the forestay (in our case the furling jib) from the bow to the A
frame.
- Disconnect the forward two shrouds(they had quick release arrangements)
then gently lower. To be fair there was so much friction in the system
that the lowering wen pretty well and was easy to control.
- Once the mast was down and resting on it's crutch on the pushpit we
tidied shrouds etc and motored off.
We found motoring with the mast down really unpleasant, the shrouds were
always in the way and generally only a thing to be done for a short period
of time (just to get under that bridge).
To put the mast up we effectively reversed the process but it was on these
occasions that we had our challenges. The big one was when the tabernacle
pulled out of the cabin roof! This was less than pleasant as the top of
the mast ended up in the river and took quite a bit of sorting out! What
had happened was that the tabernacle had been fixed to the coach roof with
great big screws but as I understand it the roof is only made of a foam
sandwich so after a while the screws just pulled out! Buffa now has four
big bolts right through the coach roof with great big washers on the
underside.
The other issue we had was that the shrouds always seem to be in the way.
On one occasion I was winding the winch to lift the mast, she stuck and in
one of my less impressive moments I carried on winding assuming that this
was just a little glitch. Unfortunately what had happened was that a shroud
had caught round a spreader and I managed to pull the spreader off (broke
the hound). Fortunately Steve was able to supply a replacement.
I'd say it took us an hour to get the mast down and put it back up again
and I really didn't like it. Now Buffa is on the sea I'm planning never to
do that again - I probably should get rid of the A frame!
To my way of thinking raising and lowering the mast of a Vega can be done
and would be OK with two reasonably strong people but on balance I suspect
that this was never the intention for the Vega and not really a good idea
if it can be avoided.
So that's my experience - others of course may have had different ones!
Mark
We have a hinged mast setup. It works well. Every fall we haul our boat out and winter it on a trailer in our driveway. We just put it in the water last weekend and raised the mast. It takes a few people to guide it up and attach the rigging.
Our system was installed somewhere on the east coast before we bought our boat.
Judy Schwan
Akvavit #1869
Our system was installed somewhere on the east coast before we bought our boat.
Judy Schwan
Akvavit #1869
I used one on my boat Lani Kai # 28 in 1976 thru 1979. One of the early ones made by Ballinger Spars. Worked well. I lived on the boat in the upper Harbour and sailed several days a week. I lowered and raised the mast myself piece-of-cake. Great thing is you can do maintenance on the mast without climbing the mast...!
Sent from my iPhone
Keenando
Boulder, CO
Sent from my iPhone
Keenando
Boulder, CO
Hi,
I'm interested in Judy's ues of the hinge system. As mentioned on my
earlier post we find raising and lowering the mast somewhat challenging so
this approach of just using the system at the start and end of the season
with plenty of people on hand seems about right. On the Norfolk Broads
(UK) you really need the ability to raise or lower the mast in ten minutes
with the minimum of people. Something which we didn't feel comfortable
doing with our system.
Mark
I'm interested in Judy's ues of the hinge system. As mentioned on my
earlier post we find raising and lowering the mast somewhat challenging so
this approach of just using the system at the start and end of the season
with plenty of people on hand seems about right. On the Norfolk Broads
(UK) you really need the ability to raise or lower the mast in ten minutes
with the minimum of people. Something which we didn't feel comfortable
doing with our system.
Mark
There is a good description, with pictures, of lowering the mast on a hinge in issue #14 of "Fair Winds", the American Vega Association newsletter. The article starts on page 24. The newsletter is available as a PDF file at the AVA website, Albin Vega - The American Vega Association Home Membership is required to access the newsletters but I believe membership is still free.
Craig Tern V#1519
Craig Tern V#1519
It seems that the Amercian Vega website has been hacked. Could someone who
knows who to contact let them know (if the link doesn't work for you too).
Tom
Tom Fenton
SV Beowulf, V2977
www.blog.mailasail.com/beowulf
knows who to contact let them know (if the link doesn't work for you too).
Tom
Tom Fenton
SV Beowulf, V2977
www.blog.mailasail.com/beowulf
Albin Vega - The American Vega Association Home appears healthy to me. Am I missing something??
Alan
Alan
Hi All
All messages have to be "Ok'd" first and looks like the other two Admins have been away so I checked them "OK" when i received an email from Yahoo.
If anyone else would like to join the Admin Team for our group then let me know. steve@...
Cheers
Steve BFrom: n4lbl
Sent: Saturday, July 20, 2013 4:34 PM
To: AlbinVega@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [AlbinVega] Re: Hinged Mast:
BTW Tom, I looked at your message's header and saw nothing explaining why
you sent your message on the 16th and Yahoo received it today. There is a
lot that I don't understand when I read those things.
All messages have to be "Ok'd" first and looks like the other two Admins have been away so I checked them "OK" when i received an email from Yahoo.
If anyone else would like to join the Admin Team for our group then let me know. steve@...
Cheers
Steve BFrom: n4lbl
Sent: Saturday, July 20, 2013 4:34 PM
To: AlbinVega@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [AlbinVega] Re: Hinged Mast:
BTW Tom, I looked at your message's header and saw nothing explaining why
you sent your message on the 16th and Yahoo received it today. There is a
lot that I don't understand when I read those things.
My vega also has a A frame and I have to say that i agree with Mark, it is very stressful.
We have never brought it down with more than 2 people but bringing it up is harder and we have always used 3 people.
Bringing down the mast is not much of a problem, you just need to watch out that the mast comes down swiftly but stop before it gets to the couch roof and offer some sort of support to remove the big bolt holding it onto the tabernacle. a bit of wood in a X shape would do the trick using the sides of the cockpit to offer the X strength at the base.
One person controls the speed of the lowering the other person ensures the mast remains strait and removes the bolt from the tabernacle (watch it here because the mast will be balance on the X bit of wood, so it might shoot up and go astern), then both of you carry the mast slowly and in short motions forward till all of it is inside the boat (you will have about 1 ft sticking out astern).
The A frame needs to have lines tide on the inside to offer support also as the mast generates and incredible amount of pull. we use the bow roller as a point to reduce the load and the windlass to control the desent (the reason also to use the bow roller is so that the pull force is in the direction of the bow and not strait up which would more than likely pull off the windlass with a chunk of the deck maybe not the first time but surely one day).
I think we never spent more than 20 min brigging down the mast, however preparation was probably 18 min 2 minutes was the actual action.
Brigging the mast up is a very different story probably a 2 hr job, make sure you are not on a cross wind because it will have an impact of how the mast is being pulled up (taking the mast sideways).
It probably takes at least 3 goes, because it is difficult to see if the rigging is tangled at some point or not, so again, preparation probably takes about 90 minutes action about 30.
We have also used the pullies from the boom attached to an anchor point on the ground (if you dont have a windlass) light pole, anything beefy really, this was done on the hard so its a bit different than in the marina.
I would not bring the mast down for the fun of it for sure, but there have been occasions which it is just great, like changing light bulbs, changing the rigging, having a look at the rigging points once a year at the beggining of the season or storage.
So, preparation, pick a day which is as still as possible (at least the first time) and take your time, if the operation is not going smoothly lower it again and start once again, once it gets past the 45 degrees you are almost there what ever was going to go wrong would have so by then, however dont get me wrong, if there is a gust at this point and its a cross wind there is little you can do, but the lower rigging on the side of the mast will start helping you control the position of the mast, another thing, the last 5 degrees, do it slowly and make sure the back stay is connected.
Good luck!
________________________________
From: Tom Fenton tjhfenton@...
To: AlbinVega@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, 17 July 2013, 1:02
Subject: Re: [AlbinVega] Re: Hinged Mast:
It seems that the Amercian Vega website has been hacked. Could someone who
knows who to contact let them know (if the link doesn't work for you too).
Tom
Tom Fenton
SV Beowulf, V2977
www.blog.mailasail.com/beowulf
We have never brought it down with more than 2 people but bringing it up is harder and we have always used 3 people.
Bringing down the mast is not much of a problem, you just need to watch out that the mast comes down swiftly but stop before it gets to the couch roof and offer some sort of support to remove the big bolt holding it onto the tabernacle. a bit of wood in a X shape would do the trick using the sides of the cockpit to offer the X strength at the base.
One person controls the speed of the lowering the other person ensures the mast remains strait and removes the bolt from the tabernacle (watch it here because the mast will be balance on the X bit of wood, so it might shoot up and go astern), then both of you carry the mast slowly and in short motions forward till all of it is inside the boat (you will have about 1 ft sticking out astern).
The A frame needs to have lines tide on the inside to offer support also as the mast generates and incredible amount of pull. we use the bow roller as a point to reduce the load and the windlass to control the desent (the reason also to use the bow roller is so that the pull force is in the direction of the bow and not strait up which would more than likely pull off the windlass with a chunk of the deck maybe not the first time but surely one day).
I think we never spent more than 20 min brigging down the mast, however preparation was probably 18 min 2 minutes was the actual action.
Brigging the mast up is a very different story probably a 2 hr job, make sure you are not on a cross wind because it will have an impact of how the mast is being pulled up (taking the mast sideways).
It probably takes at least 3 goes, because it is difficult to see if the rigging is tangled at some point or not, so again, preparation probably takes about 90 minutes action about 30.
We have also used the pullies from the boom attached to an anchor point on the ground (if you dont have a windlass) light pole, anything beefy really, this was done on the hard so its a bit different than in the marina.
I would not bring the mast down for the fun of it for sure, but there have been occasions which it is just great, like changing light bulbs, changing the rigging, having a look at the rigging points once a year at the beggining of the season or storage.
So, preparation, pick a day which is as still as possible (at least the first time) and take your time, if the operation is not going smoothly lower it again and start once again, once it gets past the 45 degrees you are almost there what ever was going to go wrong would have so by then, however dont get me wrong, if there is a gust at this point and its a cross wind there is little you can do, but the lower rigging on the side of the mast will start helping you control the position of the mast, another thing, the last 5 degrees, do it slowly and make sure the back stay is connected.
Good luck!
________________________________
From: Tom Fenton tjhfenton@...
To: AlbinVega@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, 17 July 2013, 1:02
Subject: Re: [AlbinVega] Re: Hinged Mast:
It seems that the Amercian Vega website has been hacked. Could someone who
knows who to contact let them know (if the link doesn't work for you too).
Tom
Tom Fenton
SV Beowulf, V2977
www.blog.mailasail.com/beowulf