Issue 1 The Eventider's News Dec. 2003
Foreland Gull Site Home Page M.G. Barcarole Mediterranean Cruise Summer Events
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Fiddler's Green's mast lowering and raising gear stows under the mattress in the quarter bunk! This is the skippers bunk when out with the lads! 'No sense no feeling' they say! Well it is a 4 inch thick, 'dense foam' bunk cushion!
Here is all the gear hauled out on deck prior to
setting up. There is not a huge amount of gear and as such it stows
away under my bunk quite happily. It includes a crutch that I set up
at the stern. All this gear on board means I can raise or lower the
mast anywhere, independent of shore facilities.
Now the parts of the frame are all together.
The two sides are each in 3 parts, only because I extended the frame
to get more leverage, to 9 ft, and I wanted all the bits small enough
to stow. Some have the frame permanently on deck, as part of the
guard rails. You just have to ensure the whole thing is strong enough
so it does not flex or collapse. My first one was a straight
galvanised water pipe, jointed into two bits. It needed guy ropes to
ensure it did not sway sideways, but it worked. Trouble was that it was
very strong, but heavy and left rust marks everywhere. It was always
raining I seem to recall! The MkI Stainless pole was too thin and
bent! The mast came down a little faster than planed and Barry
had to dive for cover! luckily no real damage done, the stern
rail was slightly bent, but with the help of a small jack and lots of
supporting timber bent back so you cannot see the bend! That's when I went to the 'A' frame design.
The pole can be
lighter section so easy to handle in separate bits, but strong enough
once assembled.
With the 6 part tackle attached and led through
a single snatch block to ensure a fair lead, I can start to lower. In
my case I use the stays'l halyard to attach top of frame to mast. I
have to tension rigging forward with the tackle first, so as I can
remove roller reefing topmast fore stay. The spar is allowed to rest
alongside and has to be watched to ensure it does not snag or get
damaged.
This pic shows the extended
chain plates. The top hole of the plate extension is in line with the
pivot bolt on the tabernacle, thus the rigging to the top of the mast
stays reasonably tight, not taught, as we do slack it off, but the mast
does not shift sideways appreciably during the lowering. The
diagonal support goes forward to an extra, small chain plate to take
the quite considerable backwards pull as the mast is in the horizontal
position. You could simply attach a wire or rope to the chain
plate extension, to prevent it going back, perhaps from the pulpit,
but I thought this looked neater and more workman like.
Here you can see the ease
with which we can stop and pose for the camera! There is no strain on
the rope at all. I have it in just one hand. When raising I sometimes
use the anchor winch on deck to get me started, Keith, the crew, will
give it a slight push sometimes. Last time I had the thing up before
he realised it had left the mast crutch, not even a grunt from the
foredeck! It was a simple case of reeving the blocks in the correct
fashion to ensure they do not try and twist, thus creating friction.
The 'A' frame can be seen
clearly here, the odd shape, because I altered it to make it taller.
The cross poles locate into the frame and prevent it bending in
towards the middle. Keith gently makes sure no wires get caught up in
the crutch and no rigging screws get bent! The Roller reefing spar
rests on the guard rails and the spreaders as it comes down.
Mast down into crutch.
Note the height of the A frame. The higher the better, but you do need
to be able to get at the rope on it when it is in the vertical
position. We release the lower end of the tackle, then pivot it over
backwards to release the staysail halyard, that we use for lowering.
The Frame them comes apart, bit by bit. Lastly the rigging is lashed
to mast with lots of scraps of carpet, then the whole lot moved
forward till the heel is on the pulpit, the centre in the tabernacle
jaws, well padded with that old carpet, and the top of mast in the
crutch. The height of the crutch was carefully adjusted to get that
in line with the tabernacle and pulpit. The original was dropped into
a tube welded to the stern rail, but now I have removed that and have
a free standing pole, on a block of wood, lashed in place. Trouble
with that is I can no longer motor the boat about with the mast down,
as the tiller will not turn! Might put a stronger tube back on the
stern rail, it was useful to be able to chug in from the mooring or
around the marina, with the mast down.
Then off behind Keith's Land Rover to winter store in a nearby barn. All the ropes and the dodgers etc will go into the washing machine at 40 degrees, and after drying will be packed away till spring, when they will look like new again! The Stainless rigging checked for any flaws, and replaced if needed. Did two pairs of wires last year, not bad for 12 years...
John Williams