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Chicago - Lake Michigan Mast Stepping (another in a series)

Grizz

Grizz
Columbus Day, Monday October 8, 2018, was the date when 6 crew gathered to tuck the girl beneath the crain of the club ship and unstep the mast, another in a series. The unstepping process took 30-minutes from dock departure to dock return; not a record, but well within acceptable parameters. 15+ minutes later, at 5:50 PM CDT, we pushed off for the River Trip, entering the lock, a Corp of Engineers separation between the lake and the river, @ 6:20 and resumed the leg to Chicago Yacht Works @ 6:40, into fading light.

It was dark by 7 PM, but the lights of The Loop illuminated...until @ 1.5 miles from the yard, when we entered full darkness on the edge of town [note to self: a good name for a song]. There was no traffic, either way, on the river (go figure) and we docked @ 7:20 PM. She was buttoned up and we were out the front gate on foot by 7:30; a relieved and uncluttered sleep awaited. The 'Winter List' beckons, but will wait until the 'House List' is attended to.

The YouTube attached should tell the story, if it's accessible: https://youtu.be/RwlRk1S86_Q
 

Loren Beach

O34 - Portland, OR
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
Nifty!

Never considered a crane scheme with no winch being a part of it. Nice idea and it puts the lifting onus on the boat using it.

Having lifted our engine (approx 250#) with a #30 winch, handling the rig with a #46 would be reasonably easy.

Thanks for the video.

We are also 'bout put away for the season. Sails are in for repair and some major projects being planned for the boat.

Cheers,
Loren
 

Slick470

Member III
That's really cool. I wish we had an option like that locally. We're pretty much forced to use commercial marinas to step and un-step.

I also like how someone spent the time to make a fun pattern with the non-skid on the foredeck hatch.
 

Grizz

Grizz
Winch and Hatch Non-skid

This a combo reply to Loren and Slick:

The mast probably weighs @ 375#'s and the 46 Lewmar 2-speed certainly does the trick, along with a big snatch block on the toe rail to divert the line to the winch. Winching the mast up-and-out of the partner consumed most of the time and effort. A couple hours of prep made the process fairly easy. The elevated mast cradle, custom built, is stable in transit (ratchet strapped across the mast athwart ship from toe rail to toe rail to accept potentially active lake conditions) and lifts the mast for ease of cabintop winter work (no head banging!).

The non-skid on the hatch is off the shelf opaque non-skid tape, cut to individual lengths, each then scissor cut to rounded corners and affixed where needed based on a pattern that was drawn onto construction paper and taped to the underside as a 'stick 'em here' guide. Peel and tape = done! Perhaps an hour 'all in', once the skull session confirmed a pattern that would work. Winter work to address a need that showed up in wet, pitching and rolling conditions during the 1st season of ownership (8 years ago).

Typical October Chicagoland conditions, cool days, cold nights. Glad she's put away. The schlepping of gear, tools and supplies begins this weekend. :)
 

toddster

Curator of Broken Parts
Blogs Author
We also had some difficulty separating my mast from the mast step last week. It took a little gentle "persuasion" with a mallet. The step was about to be ripped off the deck. Seems to be a bit of corrosion there. Maybe squirt some Noalox in there upon re-stepping?

We rented a crane and hoisted from a convenient spot on a jetty inside the cruise-ship dock. Split between six boats, it didn't cost very much. One guy with a stopwatch kept track of how much actual time was used by each boat. Due to the wind, there was a bit of a dicey moment when the boat left control of the line handlers on the dock side and passed over some brush and low trees before the shore-side line handlers could take up the slack. The hull picked up another small gouge or two in the process. Scrambled another windex. But since I had some other gouges to fix anyway - it didn't hurt too bad. WM has replacement windex parts.

There is a nearby overhanging rock where we could probably pull off something like the video, but I don't think we could get away with doing it from the bridge... :rolleyes:
 
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