How hard is it to raise the mast on a 272?

[Mark]

I'm looking at a oday 272, but I am concerned about raising the mast. We will not have a yard are available. Can it be done by hand?thanks Mark

 

[Nathan]

Mast

Mark, I have a 26 that I dropped & raised the stick on this spring to install a roller furler and run some additional halyards. I would imagine that the 27 mast is fairly similar. It attaches with 2 pins to a bracket on the deck. You put in one pin & swivel the mast up, then insert the second pin. I would recommend having two men lifting the mast from underneath, one on each side supporting it and one on a halyard in the back of the cockpit to help pull it up. You'll want to get the stays on ASAP as there are few visions as stomach turning as watching your unsupported mast sway in the breeze. Not a huge job, but one you will need a little help for. Best of luck.

 

[Sylvain B]

My experience

Hello,We were four, with a stepladder outside the boat (she was on the trailer).We had a Sirius 21, and beleive me that pretty different.You need something outside the boat to be able to put the base of the mast in the deckstep. The difficulty is to control the gavity center of the mast, because at the beginning, it is inverse to the exercice. We install a block and a pulley system between the forestay and the deck and we were 3 to lift the mast. Someone was secure it with the block at the front of the boat.Good luck

 

[Dick Lemming]

2-3 men

Mark, My son and I raised the mast on my O'Day 26 with no sweat, but he is 6'3 and a strong 26 year old, and I only had to pull on the backstay! The side stays were attached but loose. This year a buddy and I did it and he pulled the backstay and I lifted the mast. I am 5'9" and 55 years old- I barely got it up! I think on a 272 you will need 3 guys.

 

[Tom Ehmke]

To do it safely, you need a ginpole

I raise and lower mine with a ginpole which also happens to be my whisker pole. Check out this site for information on one way to set the mast up to use a ginpole. http://members.aol.com/aguardino/ginpole/There is some other good information for 272 owners at the guardino site.Tom

 

[John R.]

Ginpole

Tom, Aguardino did have a good web site but it hasn't been working for a long time. John R.