I need to unstep an E 32-200 mast in preparation for a long haul of my boat by a commercial boat mover. The mast mast will be lifted up and onto the truck by a boom at the boat yard and restepped using similar equipment at a yard at the other end. However, due to the rates both at the point of pick up and delivery, I'll like to do as much of the prep work and unrigging as I can. The boom and sheets have already been removed. Broad question, I know, but: do any of you have tips about what you think are the most difficult and/or most important, elements of unstepping a keel stepped mast, preparing it for the road, and restepping cleanly at the other end? Thanks for any help you can give. Mike
How to unstep and prepare the mast for transport?
Mast Prep
I also have a 32-200. It was a new boat for us this past season. Before I had my yard remove the mast for winter storage, I made a support for the mast on my deck. We lashed a piece of 2x6 onto the pulpit and fastened another piece of wood on edge with a "U' cut in it to fit the mast. At the stern we ran another piece of 2x6 across the stern rail with a similar setup to support the mast. We'll cover it soon and I feel good about it spending all winter with this support system.
Of course, this is not helpful if the shipper has other plans for the mast, but usually the boats around here are shipped this way. When I took delivery of this boat the shipping company just placed the mast from the bow rail to the stern rail without benefit of any structure to support the mast. I guess that works okay for a short trip, but I like the extra support and protection.
Too bad I don't have any pictures for you.
Good Luck. How far is the boat being moved?
I also have a 32-200. It was a new boat for us this past season. Before I had my yard remove the mast for winter storage, I made a support for the mast on my deck. We lashed a piece of 2x6 onto the pulpit and fastened another piece of wood on edge with a "U' cut in it to fit the mast. At the stern we ran another piece of 2x6 across the stern rail with a similar setup to support the mast. We'll cover it soon and I feel good about it spending all winter with this support system.
Of course, this is not helpful if the shipper has other plans for the mast, but usually the boats around here are shipped this way. When I took delivery of this boat the shipping company just placed the mast from the bow rail to the stern rail without benefit of any structure to support the mast. I guess that works okay for a short trip, but I like the extra support and protection.
Too bad I don't have any pictures for you.
Good Luck. How far is the boat being moved?
Spar Trekking trivia
Most of the time the commercial hauler will have a padded bracket along side the keel for the spar. This is due to wanting to have enough overhead clearance for the highway overpasses.
When we tried to get our boat ready for the long trip from SF to PDX we took the boom off and removed all the lines from the housetop lead blocks and lashed each coil to the spar above the gooseneck. Take pictures and make good diagrams so that you will know where it all goes.
Your original Kenyon molded vinyl boot may not stand to be removed gracefully...
In theory, you or the yard will remove the ss clamp around the base of the boot, and the boot will simply ride right up with the spar when they lift it out of the cabin...
Note that there will be some teak or hard rubber wedges to deal with. You will really have to move that boot up to about the bottom of the spinn track, which means also removing the top ss clamp and sliding it up. Good luck on that if a lot of sealant was put around the top of the boot. Delicate work, but worth preserving that boot, since they are unavailable from the surviving source of Kenyon replacement parts, "Rig Right."
You can save yourself some of that $75./hour yard labor time if you make sure that the inside part is ready for the lift. You probably have some sort of turnbuckle inside to remove from the spar -- that's what holds the cabin top down against the up force of the halyard turning blocks.
If the table or teak fill piece at the base is in the way, make sure it isn't...
There should be a teak collar around the top, and the proper way is to have the spar slide up thru it. Ours broke and I took the pieces home and repaired them with epoxy and reworked it so that it went back up in two take-apart halves.
None of this is rocket science, if you sit down inside for a bit and study what will have to happen for that spar to go straight up about 7 feet before they can lay it down horizontally.
Once the spar is down, get that windex and vhf antenna off -- after all these years they are both probably ready for replacement anyway. And look over that 20-year-old Perko anchor light -- it's probably toast by now, too.
Keep us posted on your adventure.
All the best,
Loren
Most of the time the commercial hauler will have a padded bracket along side the keel for the spar. This is due to wanting to have enough overhead clearance for the highway overpasses.
When we tried to get our boat ready for the long trip from SF to PDX we took the boom off and removed all the lines from the housetop lead blocks and lashed each coil to the spar above the gooseneck. Take pictures and make good diagrams so that you will know where it all goes.
Your original Kenyon molded vinyl boot may not stand to be removed gracefully...
In theory, you or the yard will remove the ss clamp around the base of the boot, and the boot will simply ride right up with the spar when they lift it out of the cabin...
Note that there will be some teak or hard rubber wedges to deal with. You will really have to move that boot up to about the bottom of the spinn track, which means also removing the top ss clamp and sliding it up. Good luck on that if a lot of sealant was put around the top of the boot. Delicate work, but worth preserving that boot, since they are unavailable from the surviving source of Kenyon replacement parts, "Rig Right."
You can save yourself some of that $75./hour yard labor time if you make sure that the inside part is ready for the lift. You probably have some sort of turnbuckle inside to remove from the spar -- that's what holds the cabin top down against the up force of the halyard turning blocks.
If the table or teak fill piece at the base is in the way, make sure it isn't...
There should be a teak collar around the top, and the proper way is to have the spar slide up thru it. Ours broke and I took the pieces home and repaired them with epoxy and reworked it so that it went back up in two take-apart halves.
None of this is rocket science, if you sit down inside for a bit and study what will have to happen for that spar to go straight up about 7 feet before they can lay it down horizontally.
Once the spar is down, get that windex and vhf antenna off -- after all these years they are both probably ready for replacement anyway. And look over that 20-year-old Perko anchor light -- it's probably toast by now, too.
Keep us posted on your adventure.
All the best,
Loren
Cory B
Sustaining Member
We went through this a few years ago.
Make sure whoever wraps your mast knows what they are doing. Ours was back-taped bubble wrap of some kind. An acquaintance had his shrinkwrapped for transit. The shrinkwrapping pulled off lots of his mast paint when he pulled it off. No matter what you use, get it off as soon as you can.
The hardest part for us was getting the spreaders off... I don't think they'd ever been off before and required a torch to finally get off.
As far as the boat itself, we had to take off the bow pulpit, forward "dorade guard", and the stantions, but not the stern pulpit, to meet height requirements. I think they loaded the boat on the trailer slight bow up. We also taped close the inside drawers and cabinets, and made sure everything that could be latched was. We stored the boom down below wrapped in life jackets.
Most importantly, label everything and take lots of pics as Loren suggested.
Based on estimates for shipping we got (California rates), we saved about $2K by doing most of the work ourselves. We also saved on the recieving end, but that one is harder to quantify.
Make sure whoever wraps your mast knows what they are doing. Ours was back-taped bubble wrap of some kind. An acquaintance had his shrinkwrapped for transit. The shrinkwrapping pulled off lots of his mast paint when he pulled it off. No matter what you use, get it off as soon as you can.
The hardest part for us was getting the spreaders off... I don't think they'd ever been off before and required a torch to finally get off.
As far as the boat itself, we had to take off the bow pulpit, forward "dorade guard", and the stantions, but not the stern pulpit, to meet height requirements. I think they loaded the boat on the trailer slight bow up. We also taped close the inside drawers and cabinets, and made sure everything that could be latched was. We stored the boom down below wrapped in life jackets.
Most importantly, label everything and take lots of pics as Loren suggested.
Based on estimates for shipping we got (California rates), we saved about $2K by doing most of the work ourselves. We also saved on the recieving end, but that one is harder to quantify.
Randy Rutledge
Sustaining Member
If the mast is on the deck make sure it is supported in the middle to prevent flex. I believe a mast was broked on a haul that someone wrote about on this site?????????
Safe not sorry. secure the ends and the middle.
Safe not sorry. secure the ends and the middle.
Gmilburn
Member III
mast support
After purchasing on Ebay, I had my E-29 hauled out of Lake Erie and placed on a custom built trailer for its transport down to Arkansas. I paid a commercial boat yard to secure the mast for the long trip, sight unseen. And even though I think they did a shotty job, it did survive the 900 mile trip. Here is a photo of the final set up. The front and back supports are 2" x 2"s and there is a make shift "T" supporting the center of the mast, near the mast support. The whole thing was tied on with strapping tape. All to the tune of $400. But then again the hard part was removing the spreaders and manhandling the mast (Im told weighs about 350 lbs) in cold wet Sandusky winter in December.
I hope this helps!
Gary
Hydrophilic 1977 E-29 Hull 515
After purchasing on Ebay, I had my E-29 hauled out of Lake Erie and placed on a custom built trailer for its transport down to Arkansas. I paid a commercial boat yard to secure the mast for the long trip, sight unseen. And even though I think they did a shotty job, it did survive the 900 mile trip. Here is a photo of the final set up. The front and back supports are 2" x 2"s and there is a make shift "T" supporting the center of the mast, near the mast support. The whole thing was tied on with strapping tape. All to the tune of $400. But then again the hard part was removing the spreaders and manhandling the mast (Im told weighs about 350 lbs) in cold wet Sandusky winter in December.
I hope this helps!
Gary
Hydrophilic 1977 E-29 Hull 515
Attachments
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mast secure.jpg
Time to restep the mast.
Thanks for the information. The move went well as far as I can see, but the mast hasn't been unwrapped yet, and with all of the shrouds getting pulled to and fro as it was being bubble wrapped, it got some annoying scrapes and scratches at the start of the move. Saving the mast boot was a lost cause; there was just no way. Getting the spreaders off wasn't too bad, but one had a clevis pin that would not come out no matter what maneuver we tried, so it was left on in transit. My advice for packing up the mast to load on the trailer: Have 3 or 4 sets of hands to handle shrouds and stays and what not until they're taped and wrapped, be situated where you're not rushed (as we were, in a heavy traffic area of a boat yard), and if it's possible to do this in a grassy area rather than over concrete or asphalt, by all means go to the grassy area. On a rough surface with only two working on the mast, spreaders getting dragged on the ground now and then, and shrouds or stays getting dragged over painted mast surfaces, was extremely difficult to avoid.
The teak "wedges" that were inside the mast collar came out in small pieces that don't really look like wedges or even pieces of former wedges. I'm still trying to figure out what to use for blocking when we restep the mast in the next couple days. If any of you have had success with something to replace the original blocking material, I'd love to hear about it. Thanks again.
Thanks for the information. The move went well as far as I can see, but the mast hasn't been unwrapped yet, and with all of the shrouds getting pulled to and fro as it was being bubble wrapped, it got some annoying scrapes and scratches at the start of the move. Saving the mast boot was a lost cause; there was just no way. Getting the spreaders off wasn't too bad, but one had a clevis pin that would not come out no matter what maneuver we tried, so it was left on in transit. My advice for packing up the mast to load on the trailer: Have 3 or 4 sets of hands to handle shrouds and stays and what not until they're taped and wrapped, be situated where you're not rushed (as we were, in a heavy traffic area of a boat yard), and if it's possible to do this in a grassy area rather than over concrete or asphalt, by all means go to the grassy area. On a rough surface with only two working on the mast, spreaders getting dragged on the ground now and then, and shrouds or stays getting dragged over painted mast surfaces, was extremely difficult to avoid.
The teak "wedges" that were inside the mast collar came out in small pieces that don't really look like wedges or even pieces of former wedges. I'm still trying to figure out what to use for blocking when we restep the mast in the next couple days. If any of you have had success with something to replace the original blocking material, I'd love to hear about it. Thanks again.
Chris A.
Member III
Congratulations...
...on having transported your boat that long distance. Transport damage is definitely frustrating- we have Peregrine shipped twice a year to our house for winter storage and back to water's edge in the spring. In fact, she's arriving at the house this morning. We had a mast destroyed 2 years ago during transport : (
You can use any small wood shims for taking up the space between the mast and the partners- hardware store will have some shims if you don't have any scraps in the garage. Google Spartite if you are not familiar with the product- you can pour a custom tight-fitting mast support with this when you're ready.
Best of luck with the new yacht,
...on having transported your boat that long distance. Transport damage is definitely frustrating- we have Peregrine shipped twice a year to our house for winter storage and back to water's edge in the spring. In fact, she's arriving at the house this morning. We had a mast destroyed 2 years ago during transport : (
You can use any small wood shims for taking up the space between the mast and the partners- hardware store will have some shims if you don't have any scraps in the garage. Google Spartite if you are not familiar with the product- you can pour a custom tight-fitting mast support with this when you're ready.
Best of luck with the new yacht,
Randy Rutledge
Sustaining Member
I would be concerned about window shims from the hardware store, they are soft wood and might rot quickly or just crumbel. I would at least cut oak shims or pick up a small piece of teak from West marine stock. Good luck.
Last fall I had my 32 moved from Punta Gorda Florida to Knoxville TN by a very reliable and competent carrier.
He had a seperate mast carrier on the side of the trailer.
What I did in preparation was to take lots of pics of course. Included were pics of the boom connection, all lines and blocks. I didn't realize just how handy the pics of the bimini top became when I went to put it back together. I wish I took more pics of the top of the mast when it was laid down, as to where the lines were run in the masthead, and how the rigging was connected.
One of the handiest things I did was to mark all of the turnbuckle settings with red electrical tape. I also labeled each stay as to it's location.
I also changed the light bulbs on the anchor light and steaming light just before re-rigging and re-stepping.
I bought a new mast boot from West Marine. I can't believe it was in stock at the west marine in punta gorda.
another thing to do is to draw a diagram as to where the mast wiring gets hooked up to on the wiring blocks located under the liner next to the mast. Which color wire goes where, or put numbers on them.
I removed the teak ring to revarnish but forgot to put it back on the ceiling before restepping, now I have to cut it to reinstall it.
Clean out the drain line on the floor on the mast step, mine was plugged with dirt. reseal and revarnish the teak ring on the mast step on the floor before restepping.
I lubed the mast slides with McLube before restepping.
I sanded all the galvanic corrosison off the mast and spreaders, primed with a catalized aluminum primer and repainted the mast with interlux Brightside before restepping.
Whoever came up with the idea to paint, rather than anodize the mast should be shot
The riggers said to use Lanacote on all the fasteners, not Never Seize as it has Zinc in it and promotes galvanic corrosion. I never knew that and it makes sense.
I also had to take the boom internal blocks and lines apart to remove a bird's nest. What a pain that was.
He had a seperate mast carrier on the side of the trailer.
What I did in preparation was to take lots of pics of course. Included were pics of the boom connection, all lines and blocks. I didn't realize just how handy the pics of the bimini top became when I went to put it back together. I wish I took more pics of the top of the mast when it was laid down, as to where the lines were run in the masthead, and how the rigging was connected.
One of the handiest things I did was to mark all of the turnbuckle settings with red electrical tape. I also labeled each stay as to it's location.
I also changed the light bulbs on the anchor light and steaming light just before re-rigging and re-stepping.
I bought a new mast boot from West Marine. I can't believe it was in stock at the west marine in punta gorda.
another thing to do is to draw a diagram as to where the mast wiring gets hooked up to on the wiring blocks located under the liner next to the mast. Which color wire goes where, or put numbers on them.
I removed the teak ring to revarnish but forgot to put it back on the ceiling before restepping, now I have to cut it to reinstall it.
Clean out the drain line on the floor on the mast step, mine was plugged with dirt. reseal and revarnish the teak ring on the mast step on the floor before restepping.
I lubed the mast slides with McLube before restepping.
I sanded all the galvanic corrosison off the mast and spreaders, primed with a catalized aluminum primer and repainted the mast with interlux Brightside before restepping.
Whoever came up with the idea to paint, rather than anodize the mast should be shot
The riggers said to use Lanacote on all the fasteners, not Never Seize as it has Zinc in it and promotes galvanic corrosion. I never knew that and it makes sense.
I also had to take the boom internal blocks and lines apart to remove a bird's nest. What a pain that was.