Day 229, Jailbreak Part 3, Mast down.

Mast, Step-down, step3.

 

Whole day was little cursed.

 

My friend Engine and me agreed to meet at 7AM but he had to do detour before come to marine, so he came at about 9pm. two hours on nice chill weather was lost. then we figured out i forgot climbing gear box. and I had to ride home and back, so we lost one more hour. Later I regret about these gold hours...  we had 26C that day, but full strength Texas sum. I think at least three times i was under edge of heat stroke. Later we have "dropped" mast from about 2 " (inches) to front and back reeling because rope used in lifting pulley system just ended when I peyed it to lower the mast. I was too concentrated to how and where to land mast and forget to control end of the rope. Next issue, when we lowered down "A" frame we put too much side load on one of legs and 2x4 snapped, but no injury or damage happened, just fast uncontrollable descend ;-).   

 

Furler down. 

First of all before starting lowering mast we took off furler.  Maybe we may do all together, but furler is an additional weight and also i worried to bend/ break foils.

Step by step instruction ;-) 

 

Relax backstay 

Use jib halyard to take forestay load and make forestay slight slack. 

Get up to the mast using main halyard as safety rope. I do not need second halyard due to i have mast steps. Use spinnaker halyard (i had no one, so I just mounted additional block to mast head) and put slipknot on furler foil to lift front stay and take off load from the pin.

Get top pin out and let furler and forestay hang on spinnaker halyard. 

Disconnect bottom side of the forestay.

Lower furler on the dock by walking away with bottom part and progressively release halyard to low top without applying bending stress to foil.

Taking mast from step (boot)

 Previous week I installed "A" frame.

 

Frame is ready to get load. 2 level rigging installed + additional tot "backstay". As soon as i installed "A" frame tilted couple degrees forward I do not need to do strong tension on front side.

All rigging ropes was 5mm dyneema. top level is gray one, bottom is black and pretty hard to see on the picture.

 

Mast lifting point - tied with wide flat strap under the  spreaders and then crossed around to make tie point about 18 inches above the spreader - expected center of gravity.  

 

4:1 block system made between eye bolt on the top of "A" frame and mast  tie. working end routed to jib sheet winch with help of two snitch blocks. one next to base of the "A" frame leg and second to make line better angle to winch.

"A" frame ready to get load

 

Before lifting I tied bottom on the mast to all 4 sides just in case if I have fixed pulley system below mast center of gravity. It was intended to prevent mast from fast flip over in moment when it leaves mast boot . These lines are not tight, just safety ties.

 

My friend Eugene helping me to do the job. 

 

 

 
I tightened lifting line first, then relaxed all stays was as possible. Mast start lifting up. After  3-4 rounds tightening lift line  - relaxing stays  I confirmed - the mast is going up and has no tendency to flip over,  all load is on "A" frame now.  At that point I disconnected all  shrouds and stays from the chainplates. continuing to lift mast until it get out of mast boot.   

Mast lifted up from the mast boot (base)

 

 

 

Lowering mast down. 

Several pictures in process. mast is tied on the center, but on picture it looks like it is hanged almost at  the end - it is optical illusion.

Continue lowering down

 When we lowered mast almost to Pulpit and Pushpin level I paid to much attention where to lend the mes that completely forgot to watch the lifting line end and end slipped from my hand. good thing - hast was about 2 inches from the lending place. Landing was hard, but no damage at all. [Cursed day]

Take frame down

After lowering the mast we had to take A-frame down. 

We disassembled cross-members  released legs tie-offs and started lower it down to forward side. 

Idea was to move legs bottom down to dock and gradually disassemble legs. BOT I completely forgot that I  spring lines keeping boat from forward movement.

As soon as we moved legs to the dock boat moved forward for 3-4 feet and stopped. Boat start moving forward resulting A frame tilting about 30 degrees in stays tied to the boat.  One of legs appeared trapped between dock and one of sanctions, this provided side force to one of the legs and it was enough to snap 2x4 board. then all went like in slow movie. The frame started way down and soft landed mostly on the lifelines. We where lucky it did not break anything and no injury sustained.

 

No pictures, sorry. was too busy to take pictures.

Mast lowered and fixed on the boat.

Almost ready to move. 

Picture of the day.