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I know I have answered this question more than once in the past, and thought I had written an article about it, but I’m blowed if I can now find it.
If time permits it is possible that I may be able to reply properly this evening; if not then it will possibly be next weekend. From tomorrow I am booked to do a delivery trip/cruise, delivering an inexperienced friend’s yacht to his marina further along the coast, and making a cruise of it, and giving him some seatime and experience, so all being well I will be away sailing until Friday – but at the moment the weather forecast is looking very “iffy”, and final decision is lunchtime tomorrow.
Feel free to remind me towards the end of the week if I haven’t replied in the meantime.
Oliver
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Thank you Oliver
Bob
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A work in progress: I have now written an article on this, and the first draft is attached. (UPDATE timed at 1223: some minor editing now done, and file re-attached.)
This is very much a first draft, and it could do with the insertion of at least one diagram, and possibly with some tweaking of the text, but I hope that even as it currently stands it may be helpful to you.
You could be of assistance in the editing process, by constructive feedback on anything in the text which is not clear enough.
I will do some more on this article at my leisure, and will then get it put into the Members’ Library, but in the meantime I hope this is helpful.
Oliver
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Thanks Oliver. Clear and understandable instructions.
Bob
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@Oliver
Excellent document, and I use that method on my wooden Mk2.
One little addition to prepping the mast – before lifting the mast vertical, insert the burgee! Don’t be one of those in the boat park tipping the boat on it’s side just to add it later!
I like the boat to be a little “bow down” on the trolley, so that any windage tends just to bring it vertical, rather than on top of me. And when lowering into the boat I also find it easier to locate the foot before letting the mast back into the gate, which a “bow down” boat helps a bit. Before the shrouds and forestay are attached this makes it easy for mast to enter the gate. Then jump out and loosely attach forestay as you describe – (if forestay is too tight you won’t be able to attach shrouds in the right position) – several people use a bit of bungee in addition to the lanyard – this also stops the forestay going “too loose” once full rig tension is applied.
Finally I personally also make sure the twinning line is in position behind (i.e. forward) of the mast foot – not such a big deal to re-run it afterwards, but every little helps.
Cheers
Chris
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Oliver
I own a wooden Duffin series 2 GP14 and I’m about your age. I still like to do things on my own but I’m wary of pushing it.
I think the main worry is the risk of losing control of the mast when you are actually lifting it over the gunwale and onto the step, or back out again. I minimise that risk by attaching a stabilising line that runs from the top of the mast down to one of the fairleads for the mainsheet tails on the transom then forward into my hand. I ease the line through my hand while lifting or lowering the mast, leaning it slightly forward so that it’s supported by the line. I don’t find it a problem that one hand is holding both the line and the mast. The mast can swing from side to side across the boat but it won’t rock forward and back. This constrained movement makes the mast much easier to control than when it can fall in any direction.
On my boat it’s difficult to pull the mast forward into the gate slot so that you can open the gate bar. I use a block and tackle with one end tied by a cord to the mast near the gooseneck and the other end tied to the pin for the jib tack. The cords are tied on using slip knots so that they are easy to untie – they get pulled very tight.
Seamus
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Oliver –
Further to my post in May 2018:
The last time I had to remove the mast I left the foot inside the boat and lowered the head aftwards down over the transom. To do that I first had to lift the mast off its step over the side of the centreboard case and onto the floor, a small easy lift. To protect the floor and the back of the front tank I dropped the foot of the mast onto a thick pad of towelling. So that the ends of the spreaders didn’t dig into the transom I had to spin the mast round 180 degrees as I lowered it. Raising the mast was just the reverse process.
This is simpler than what I suggested before.
Seamus
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Seamus,
That sounds like a sounds like very good system, and it is one that I had never even thought of, and neither have I previously heard of anyone else doing it. Well done.
However like my system, it depends on someone standing inside the boat. That is normally regarded as putting an unfair strain on the hull; but at my weight (12 stone) it is perfectly OK with a wooden GP14 provided she is well supported on the trailer, and the fact that the wooden GP14 is massively strong for its size greatly helps.
I leave it to others to decide whether any particular plastic GP14 is strong enough, but I caution that there were ocasional issues of structural failure in the early examples even when new. How well the boat is supported is even more important in such cases.
Oliver
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Oliver
I’m somewhat heavier than you but my boat is a wooden Duffin-built series 2 and I haven’t gone through the floor yet. I stand inside the boat when taking the mast out but I find it easier to start off outside the boat when putting it back in. Lifting the mast into the boat horizontally in about the right position is easy enough but it’s quite tricky to then tilt the mast and get the foot through the slot in the centre-board case. Last time I did it I missed initially and some wood got scratched – fortunately not seriously. To finish off I get into the boat and jiggle the mast onto the mast step.
Seamus
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What’s with all the HTML in the post? I copied the text in via TextEdit on a Mac. What should I have done? Seamus
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Seamus, Oliver
Re posting on the forum – the html is about styling – best NOT to use applications that produce text styling.
On Windows, “Notepad” is ok as it does not format. For other apps, right click and then choose “paste as plain text” then that will be fine.
I have just tested TextEdit using a MacBook Pro (and Safari) – the quick answer is:
- It will NOT work properly just pasting with CMD-V – it will look ok until you save it, when the html is converted as your previous posts showed. (This is a security feature, as unrestricted HTML can be an issue)
- I think it may work if you choose the Text tab, then CMD-V to paste into the edit area (UNDER the rows of icons). Then click submit button. It should strip any HTML styling.
I kindly suggest any further tests are done under a new forum topic – results can then be summarised in one post and the thread removed.
Chris
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Seamus,
Thank you for that; some interesting ideas.
Re the HTML, or whatever the formatting commands are; it seems that this website doesn’t accept anything copied and pasted from other formats. And even just using the ENTER key to move to a new line is a formatting command.
My guess is that the formatting commands which this site uses, and recognises, are not those used by other programs; so if you format something in a different program it picks up the formatting commands but doesn’t recognise them and doesn’t know what to do with them – so it prints them as text. Less than ideal, but that seems to be the way things go!
The only solution I have found is to actually compose your posts within this forum pane.
I have edited your post to remove the formatting commands, and it now makes sense.
Hope this helps,
Oliver
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I remember a few years ago I had a similar problem, which we never fully resolved at the time, but Andrew Bray (I think) asked me how I had input my material, and whether I had used the Visual tab or the Text tab. (Top right of the typing pane)
I still haven’t experimented with that, but it might be worth trying to input pre-formatted material in the Text tab and see what happens. I will do a test post in a moment (and then delete it), and report back.
Oliver
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Hi,
I’m coming to this discussion late, as I just googled “stepping a GP14 mast”. 🙂
Many thanks for the description, Oliver, it will be very useful when we get that far. I downloaded both versions of the Word doc, and each one says in red letters on page 2 “Insert diagram”.
Was one ever produced?
Regards,
Gill
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