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Rigging a new mast |
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The original spruce mast was cracked when I bought the boat. A lot of the seams had split and while it might have been possible to epoxy it back together it didn't seem worth it to me. I found a used aluminum mast in very good condition in a boat yard in Seattle for $250. Supposedly it was off a Catalina and it was about four feet longer than what I needed. (I wish I had pictures of the two transport missions through Seattle where we tied it on the roof rack on the top of my car) We ended up cutting the mast about 18 inches taller than the old one because, first, I wanted more sail area, but more importantly, since we added a bowsprit that extended the forestay about 18 inches, adding an equal amount of mast height would keep the genoa sheeting angles the same. We cut each wire slightly longer than it needed to be then attached a sta-lock to one end of each wire and put that end on the mast. Once we hoisted up the mast then we made the final cuts on the lower end of the wires one by one and attached them. First the aft lowers, then the forward lowers, the uppers, the backstay and finally the forestay followed. The mast dressing and raising took the better part of two days with three people busting ass on it. But it was so worth it both monetarily and psychologically. The mast, wire, turnbuckles, sta-locks, spreaders, crane rental, etc. all came in under $1500. The confidence it has given me in my boat is priceless.
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