Lowering the mast

[Joseph6508]

Does anyone have any ideas on lowering the mast on a 1987 Hunter 26.5 without using a crane? Any ideas and past experience in this field would be helpful. There is not any instuctions in the manual about attempting this feat.

 

[Steve O.]

there's a reason...

why there's no instructions for lowering the mast without a crane: not advisable.

 

[Joseph6508]

the other idea...

I need to replace the mainsheet halyard sheave on the masthead. Is there a way to replace the sheave without lowering the mast. I would use the jib halyard but its a fractional setup.

 

[Bill O'Donovan]

Big mast

You could singlehandedly lower the mast of say a 16-foot boat, but 26 is just too big. Even with help, the righting principal or whatever it's called will overwhelm you at a certain angle because your apex is too low and too weak to overcome the top-heavy top of the mast. Alternatively, you could take a bosin's seat up and attach a separate sheave on the front of the mast by attaching a pintel or a dryer clamp. The sheeve and the line would be exposed, but you'd live to tell about it.Then someday when you have to dismast for another reason you can address the original sheave problem.

 

[Ed]

Mast lowering

If your mast is pinned at the base so that it will pivot, I think you can lower it using a 4 part block and tackle (boom vang or main sheet tackle)attached to the forestay. I lower and raise the mast on my 23 ft. boat every time I go sailing to get under a bridge, and i do it while motoring to the bridge. since I'm doing it alone, I added a 6 ft strut projecting forward of the mast, but for a one time event, I think you and a couple of buddies could do it easily. You should do it on a calm day and have someone holding the mast on the centerline of the boat to keep from putting a twist on the mast step. Also, catch it with a boat hook or with two guys before it is in a horizontal position, at which point the load on the tackle is very high. My mast is 25 ft high, but is probably about as heavy as yours.