Tanzer 16 Raising the Mast Single-handed - part 2 guys

Tanzer 16 Raising the Mast Single-handed  - part 2 guys  -- May 9, 2014  --  When last we left this project, the mast was here.  (See post May 7, 2014.)

If you are 6'3" and strong as an ox, you can probably skip these next few posts.  This is how I did it; it worked for me.  It's up to you to determine if you have the skills, knowledge, and strength to do this safely.

At this point the mast started to swing to port and starboard--obviously We needed some guys.  The couldn't be the shrouds.  There is no place to fasten them.  You can't use the shroud chainplates, that space is already taken up by the gin pole.  Besides that wouldn't work very well because ideally the guys should be on a straight line connecting both guys and the bottom hinge of the mast. (That way the triangle would stay the same as the mast went up and you wouldn't have to adjust the guys.)  Well in this case, there was no hinge; the bottom of the mast was just sitting on a big cushion.  (This would turn out to be a huge problem in a few minutes.)

To solve the swaying problem I rigged up some guys out of 1/4-inch polyester line.  Luckily I had installed some midship cleats for mooring, and they provided anchor points on the deck.  They weren't lined up with base of the mast so they had to be adjusted every 12 clicks of the winch.

The first time I just tied the guys to the mast.  In subsequent iterations the  guys had loops at the top and snap hooks.  The main halyard connected to the snap hooks and I had a way to put the tops of guys high on the mast and lower them when I had the mast up--the higher the better!

Here is what the sway looks like from the back.  If you doing this by yourself, you raise the mast 12 - 24 clicks, then you adjust the guys, then 24 more clicks...and so on.

This picture shows the guys in the lower position before I came up with the
halyard rasing idea.  This was also before I got a taller ladder on the job.

So finally I got the mast in the up right position.  It was slow, but at no time was the mast out of control. Once I got it up, I picked it up, it wobbled, but I got it on the step and secured.  That's when I discovered that the mast had slipped off the boat cushion during all of this messing about, and it had punched a small hole into--not quite through, the bulkhead.  Shit!  Back to the internet for ideas.

Fortunately the hull was not compromised in any way, and this is pretty fixable.

Next post:  Making a hinge -- a tall ladder is helpful.

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