Lowering the mast on a 27'

[Paul]

I need to lower the mast on my Catalina 27. The boatyard will do it for a small stack of fees. How difficult is it if I recruit a few friends and we lower it ourselves? What should we know before doing so?

 

[Nick]

Depends . . .

Paul, Is your mast stepped to the deck with a hinge? If it is you and two friends can do it using the boom as the lever and lowering via the mainsheet/traveler setup. The two friends steady the sideways motion with lines around the mast at the spreaders.If the mast isn't tabernacled (hinged) then you'd need to build a wooden A-frame. There are plans for these on the net. How much does the yard want to charge you? If you pull all the pins and do what else needs to be done first. Just have the yard pick the mast up with their crane and lay it down on the deck for you. (Build a simple wooden crutch attached to your stern rail first to cradle the base of the mast.) Sounds like a c-notes worth of crane time to me. Less if one of the guys agrees to a lunchtime pull. Nick "Julia Bell" C-27, #86

 

[Rick D]

let the yard do it

I own a cat 270 and wouldn't think of lowing the mast with a few guys. It's big and heavy, do yourself a favor and hire a crane. If you do it yourself just make sure your insurance is up to date

 

[joe]

A-Frame

....here's one link on the Intl. Catalina 27 page that shows the a-frame idea. I have another article that is much more detailed, but I can't find it. It's pretty cool. You can do it with 3 or 4 crew. The yard near my marina charges like $200... 100 off, 100 on. Same as haul-out.

 

[Paul]

Mast unstepped!

Sunday, a friend and I were able to successfully unstep the mast (not hinged). Having never done this before, it took us about 2.5 hours. Much of this time was figuring out what to do, positioning the A-frame, etc. The mast came down in about 10 minutes. We used directions from the Internet, much like those Joe mentioned (Thanks Joe), but with less wood. Each leg of our A-frame consisted of two 10' 2x4s. TIP 1: Use the main (or jib) sheet to raise the A-frame (instead of man-handling it), it works like a charm.TIP 2: For the line that's noosed around the mast, use line that doesn't stretch. Thanks for the advice. After having done this, I wouldn't pay more than $50 to have the mast unstepped in the future.Paul"Hamlet's Mill"C-27

 

[Nick]

Cool . . .

Hi Paul, Thanks for letting us know you got the mast down and I'm glad it all worked out for you. Nick"Julia Bell"C-27, #86