So after being thoroughly ripped off by the crane guy I determined that I would make myself independant of him by building my own lowering/lifting rig as illustrated by a photo Ramona posted a couple of years ago.

This apparatus is demonstrated on Youtube. This method involves a lot less strain than using a spinnaker pole or boom as a "gin pole".



The "Gin pole" method is mostly only suitable for trailer sailers and is what I did many times on my Windrush Wildfire on my own but I had to use a sheet winch for mechanical advantage.



Those that regularly go in and out of the Swan River under the Freemantle Bridge will no doubt dispute that but there is no disputing the fact that lifting and lowering the weight of the mast only requires nowhere near the amount of grunt that levering a mast up or down does.

The "A Frame Method" naturally requires the lifting point is fixed and generally that it is at least AT or preferably ABOVE the point of balance (COG to be precice) of the mast. It fairly much requires two people, one on the lifting gear and the other to control the mast base. Also it may only be suitable for single spreader rigs.

It may vary from yacht to yacht and pre-measurements should be taken and some sort of calculations made before committing.

Raising the Rig.

The Youtube vid of the Cal 27 is educational but I just could bring myself to trust pine studs for my A frame legs.

I visited my favourite metal merchant and determined that 50 x 50 x 3 mm ally RHS would suit the job but 6.5 metres was not long enough and was a trifle too flexible. I bought two lengths, each cut in half. I then bought two 2 metre lengths of 40 x 40 x 3 mm steel duragal RHS as extension pieces, then a length of 100 x 6 mm ally plate for the top joiner.

This gave me a 2 mm per side clearance for easy insertion and when bolted each way would not be too flexible.


I drilled as accurarely as possible to make the joints interchangeable but still marked them to match.





The feet are bolted to the toe rail.




We did a trial a couple of weeks before the lift by raising the A frame, guying it fore and aft and then lifting an 85 kg friend off the deck and then bouncing him a bit to make sure the legs would not buckle under load.





This is where mistake No. 2 is. Unlike the Cal 27 set up, we had to raise the A fame from aft and the mast from forward due to the narrowing of the boat's beam towards the bow.

The forward guy lines need to be led inside the cap shrouds and over the spreaders. You will see why in following pics.

The A frame is erected with fore and aft guys and the 4:1 tackle attached.






The lifting tackle is attached to the mast and the tail end of the lifting tackle needs to go through a turning block and led to a securing point such as a rope clutch, self tailing winch or cleat near the hauling point.

Mistake No.3 is where we attached the lifting tackle to the mast. It should have been above the hounds and below the spreaders. When we got the mast up, the strop was jammed under the hounds and required a trip up in the boson's chair to free it.

That trip is required anyway both when raising or lowering the mast to take it off or put it on respectively.





I was wondering if the lifting line led straight down to the mast step would block slotting the mast in but it didn't.






The hoist was fairly easy with the haul on the line being only about 20 to 25 kg and winching not necessary.





A bit of juggling is needed to make sure the spreaders stay in front of the legs.


Wander66 is looking up there and thinking "I can' believe we just did that." while he is shouting "You idiot Cisco!! I told you we should have run the forward guys inside the cap shrouds."

And he is right. You can see it in the pic below.



A satisfying and successful operation overall and now that we have erected and lowered the A frame twice, we are confident we could lower or erect the mast in about an hour each way including assembly and disassembly of the A frame.

I hope this pictorial essay is of use to some other Seabreezers. Cheers Cisco.