Tanzer 16, Hinged Mast Step Works--No sweat raising mast single handed

Part 10, Tanzer 16, Hinged Mast Step Works--No sweat raising mast single handed -- January 19, 2015 -- We have been working on this since September, and, happily, all the work was worth it.  We raised the mast today using the the hinged mast step. It was a breeze.  There were two of us, but the job can easily be done by one person.  (This is the last post in a long series.  For futher details look at old posts or the mast raising page.)

Pulled the boat out and left it the trailer attached to the truck.  We put the crutch in place and got ready to move the mast into position.  Discovered a minor screw up on my part.  The boom topping lift hardware was installed backwards.  it took ten minutes to fix that.

Error made and unmade.

Next we moved the mast into position on the crutch.  I didn't know for sure that it would balance in such a way that it stayed in the boat, but it did.  Now we no longer need to haul a ladder to the boat launch.  We did discover that the crotch at the top of the crutch was too tight.  I will make a new one in the shop.

It was easy to lift the mast into position.

With the mast in position the next step was to fasten the back parts of the mast hinge and the king post hinge together.

The forward pin needs to be removed--don't lose it.  Then fasten the aft pin
in place.

From this point on every part of the mast raising experience is way easier than it used to be.  The bottom of the mast is now locked in place and won't move around.  Next put the A-frame gin pole in place.  If you look at the pictures, you will notice that some eye bolts and snaps have been added to the A-frame.  These are to hold the shrouds so they don't become fouled as you raise the mast.  There is a similar eye bolt at the apex of the A-frame to hold the forestay.

With the shrouds and forestay out of the way, the jib halyard is secured to the apex of the A-frame, and secured to the halyard cleat.  Then the temporary guys are attached to the main halyard and hauled 2/3 of the way up the mast.  The lower ends of the temporary halyards come down through fairleads and are secured to deck cleats.

The fairleads are in line with the mast step.  In this location the triangle  of
the shrouds stays the same the whole time the mast is being raised so the
temporary shrouds do not need to be adjusted as the mast goes up.

With all this set up you can attach the trailer winch line to the apex of the A-frame and start cranking the mast up.  No fuss.  No drama.  Just make sure nothing is tangled.

In this picture the mast is up and pinned.  The shrouds are in place and the
temporary shrouds have not yet been removed.  The mast appears to be
pitched forward a little, but when we put weight on the main halyard, like a
sail, alignment was near perfect.

When the mast is up, pin the forward part of the hinge.  You can now attach the forestay.  Then remove the A-frame from the chain plates and hook up the shrouds.  Now lower the main halyard and the temporary stays, and you are ready to rig the boat.  The whole job takes less than 15 minutes.  Most importantly, there is never a moment when you feel like things are out of control and wonder if the mast is going to come crashing down.

Problems?  Only two.  In the fabrication of the mast step on the keelson and the addition of the hinge, we raised the height of the mast by about an inch.  As you would expect the shrouds were about an inch and a half (1 1/2") short.  Today we used some spare shackles as extenders.  I have already ordered longer extender plates for the new set-up.  In fact this will be better since they are the kind that snap into place.

Other problem--with everything finally up in place, we noticed that the mast was slightly twisted--maybe three degrees.  We believe this won't matter.  But---if it seems to point higher on one tack than the other, we will remove the plugs and make an adjustment.

Next test.  See if the thing actually holds together with 20-knot winds.  Coming soon--we are going to shoot a video of the whole mast raising process.