mast raising and boat towing
The trick on the "bridle" or boom guys is to have the lengths of the "legs" correct. And that depends on where you attach the bridle to the boom and where the boom is attached to the mast. We've raised/lowered mine at least 10 times and always sort of guessed at the proper location of the boom on the mast - it does not have to be in its normal sailing position, in fact I now mount it above the slug-insertion opening. But make sure it is securely located - you do not want it to slide up or down the mast once you start the raising/lowering. I wrap a bungee tightly around the mast above and below the gooseneck. My bridle is made up of vinyl-covered lifeline wire cable, so it doesn't give at all. It is shaped in a V, with an eye nicopressed at each end and at the point of the V. Each leg is then shackled to the lower chainplate hole and the middle is shackled to the boom bale. If everything is set up right, it will keep the boom from swaying too much left or right - it does not need to be taut, in fact you want a little play in it, but you want the boom to stay approximately on centerline as the mast goes up/down. In Baroni's account, the masthead fell off to the side because there was too much give in the bridle. The masthead WILL try to go left or right, guaranteed. That's the point of having the bridle. Something that helped a lot was to make a model of the whole thing out of dowels, tape, and string. About half an hour of work at the kitchen table showed me what each component did and gave me confidence that it would work. A big ingredient to a successful conclusion is patience - check and double check to see that lines lead fair and that shrouds/turnbuckles are not fouled or kinked. If you have to make any changes with the mast half-way up things get real ugly. The factory pedestal/hinge works fine, but the Dwyer base hinge is also well-suited and frees up one person - otherwise someone has to hold the butt of the mast in place and that is not an easy job,
When preparing to tow an E23 keep in mind that the factory weight is a "dry" weight - when you add the weight of the motor and all the gear normally on board you are probably approaching 4000# and the trailer will be 1000# plus. Some guys do use single-axle trailers, but the tires are heavy duty and rated way up there, and if one lets go, think about what the other must handle as the rig is slowed to a stop. A tandem rig gives a better margin of safety if something goes wrong. A rule of thumb is don't pull something bigger than yourself - trying to tow this boat on a tandem trailer with a sedan or small pickup can be done, physically, but you are on thin ice and in any panic situation you are in trouble. I tow mine with my Ranger 1/8 mi down the road to work on the bottom, but I wait for no traffic and I go slow.
One big advantage of having these boats is that you don't pay anything in the spring or fall to have it launched/recovered.