I’m working to get my first sailboat ready for the water and could use some advice and help. I’ve been researching and trying to figure out if my mast and step are missing a securing point and should have a bolt/nut, or something to the effect, through the deck. Right now it looks like the only things securing the mast to the deck are the fore and side stays. I don’t want to be missing something and end up damaging something. I included a pic of of my deck mast step. Any help would be appreciated.
Mast step help
- Thread starter kbapark
- Start date
Looks good to me because once your mast is resting in that oval Tabernacle the only way it can get out is to jump up 1/2 inch and move sideways and it will not do that as long as the tension on the stays are tight even if your boat gets laid on its side by a blowdown.
Thank you. That’s what I was initially thinking since I didn’t see any threaded inserts on the mast and it didn’t look like any posts had broken off. I only have 1 day of sailing experience on a buddies boat, I wanted to put it out here to the brain trust.
My 170 was very difficult to step without help. My first mate has bad knees, so this is a solo job. The stays are too tight to set the mast in the tabernacle. If you have this problem, there is a solution to slacken the cables.
Small 7 Hole Quick-Release Shroud Levers
Small 7 Hole Quick-Release Shroud Levers
Thanks for the recommendation Tater. Me and the wife were able to step the mast a couple days ago after a little trial and error. After going through all of that I will be ordering those shroud levers.
The adjusters will start at about an inch which is plenty for my boat. I talked this to death until someone,
stickinthemud57, understood the problem. Thank him for the recommendation.