TABERNACLE
i have tabernacled two boats. we have to trasit under a bridge in the santa cruz harbor. not difficult on a 22 foot. you will need to make a template of the bottom of your mast and find a shop to fabricate the tabernacle mast step. ballenger spars in watsonville, ca. has been doing them for years and if you will call them up and ask for buzz he will tell you what you need to send him. look to around 250 dollars. after the mast is down you hold the mast step up to the base of your mast and in the slot that is drilled in the step you make a point half way up the slot on the mast. remove the step and that point is now your radius point. take a compas and scribe an arc using that point and the bottom of the mast. the arc you have scribed will needed to be cut and shaped. we usually fit a piece of fir lumber inside the mast at the bottom. about 6 inches inside. when you shape the arc have the fir inside so it will be shaped with the mast. iused a belt sander and shaped the arc with a heavy grit. now drill a hole, 1/2 inch through the point you marked for the radius at the base of the mast. insert a sleeve that a bolt will travel through. again i got the sleeve from ballenger. 5 dollars. the other parts you need are pelican hooks. you can't buy them through a cataloge. the ones that are advertised are not suitable. ballenger makes them up and cost about 30 dollars a piece. you will need three of them. the only alteration to the stays is with the middle stay. if you don't have a middlestay and the pivot is level with the hole in your mast then you don't need to do anything. the back stay gets a pelican hook and the aft stays get a pelican hook. to lower the mast you need to take off the back stay and attach it to the bale on the end of your boom. your mainsheet needs to be long enough to lower the mast with it. you need to configure a bridle by attaching a shackle on the forward stay where the pivot point is level with the pivot point on your mast. that is the hole you drilled in for the mast step. you then run a line from the end of your boom through the shackle and back to around your winch and cleated off. the tension needs to be even but taut on this line. this keeps the mast straight while it is going down. good luck and if you have questions please feel free. polox@aol.com oh i forgot. the mast step needs to through bolted to the deck.
