We took down, then raised our mast for three winters after we bought our '77 h27. First, you need a mast crane. This is a tall pole with an arm set at right angles at the top long enough to swing over the center line of boat while you are tied up next to the crane. I'm not familiar with Lake Monroe. I would call around the marina's on the lake that serve sailboats to find one that has a mast crane. If you can't find one, you will have to devise a jury rigged one. I would go with a tripod structure with the bottom, ends firmly secured to the toe rail, and a pulley at least 3 feet above where the spreaders are attached to the mast. The mast has to be close to vertical as you lower it onto the boot (the aluminum stub on the deck over your cabin.) My wife, the Admiral and I managed this without any assistance. One per son can easily handle one end of the mast, especially when it is suspended on a crane.
The process goes like this:
1. Prepare the electrical cables in the mast and the pipe coming up through the boot for connection. We have three. One for the masthead light, one for the steaming and deck lights halfway up the mast, and a coax for the radio antenna.
2. Prepare the stays for connection. Four at the masthead, and four just below the spreaders.
3. Lay the mast under the crane ashore, or under the tripod on the deck. If you use a tripod, be sure that you can lift the mast vertically over the boot from where it lays.
4. Run a loop of line around the mast below the spreaders up to the hook of the crane, or over the pulley of the tripod.
5. One person raises the mast until the foot is a couple of feet over the boot and secures the line, The other person connects the electrical lines, and starts stuffing them into the mast.
6. Unsecure the line and slowly lower the mast while the other person keeps stuffing the lines into the mast, then guides the foot of the mast down over the boot, until the bottom of the mast rests on the plate around the boot.
7. Attach the four upper shrouds to the turnbuckles at the bow and stern, and tighten them to take out the slack. Then drop the crane/tripod loop and remove it from the mast. Remove the tripod from the boat so you have east access to the shrouds. (Or just swing the leg of the crane away from the boat.)
8. Adjust the fore and aft shrouds so that a weight suspended on the main halyard hangs about 4-6 inches behind where the boom will fit on the mast to set the rake of the mast.
9. Adjust the port and starboard shrouds so that the distance from the end of the main halyard to the toerail is the same on both sides. This centers the top of the mast above the boat.
10. Tighten the shouts an equal number of times for each pair (side to side, and fore and aft) until they are firm
11. Attach the lower shrouds to their turnbuckle and tighten them until they are firm, sighting up the mast to ensure that it is straight fore and aft, and side to side. I. E, no bend in the mast.
12. Using a Loos gauge, tighten each pair of top shrouds the same number of turns until they reach the desired tension. My memory (please check it) is 480 for the top shrouds.
13. Use the same procedure to tighten the lower shrouds equally, still checking that the mast stays straight.
I tighten the lower shrouds to 420 on the Loos gauge.
That's it. Now the mast is reader to mount the boom, the mainsheet, and the vang if you have one, then bend on the sails.
Our forestay has a roller curler mounted over it making adjustment very difficult to adjust, so I do the best I can with the backstay alone.
Fair winds, and following seas!
