A Sub 60 Minute Rig and De-rig System

[bscott]

The more help I have, the longer it takes. I had to drop my mast in the slip to repair my topping lift and had an audience of Catalina 25 skippers making remarks until I installed my mast raising system.
Out came the cell phone cameras--I will be watching them at haul out time to see how long it takes them to trailer up and go home. The line up of boats at the club gin pole is a sight to see

Bob

[Whipsyjac]

Ok, its my first season and I have to say I haven't got out a stop watch and timed my rig and de-rig. However I don't find it to be long or tedious. With the admiral on the jib halyard and the first and second mates helping the mast across the crutch and organizing shrouds and stays we were ready to sail in less than 30mins and ready to leave the ramp in the same amount of time.

With my manly friends it takes longer 'cause they "know" what to do, or want a detailed explanation of why. My women don't care they just want to get on the water, so the nicer I say things the faster we're sailing(hmmm I should try saying nice things to the wind and sails...I'd probably gain a knot!). I definitely feel that with people-power stepping the mast is faster than hooking up a ginpole and baby stays(I can see why people leave them attached.) I definitely want the appropriate quick pins to eliminate the wrench and ratchet portion of rigging, add a Johnson lever to the forestay and it'll be a breeze.

Slow areas: currently I'm nut and bolt for mast foot (bow/rail and mast step); boom to gooseneck; forestay/furler to mast(I unhook and lash to mast to store the furler straight); mast crutch to transom socket(96 doesn't have pedestal crutch, would anyone recommend switching?)

Speedier: I have old style hinged spreaders(no kerfuffle with lifelines); mainsail tack I have a quick pin; snap shackles on all halyards and topping lift; I leave boom vang, mainsail, and mainsheet attached to the boom.

However for planning purposes I give myself an hour from arriving at marina/ramp to leaving on the water and vice versa, especially on busy days where the line-up to launch is 6+vessels(that being said I rig in the line-up so its not much longer).

Willy

[voltzwgn]

So in this thread I've seen reference to quick pins........... so when are they acceptable to use and when should they not be used?

I thought I had seen that they should not be used in standing rigging? My specific questions would be head stay? After raising the mast my girlfriend goes forward to pin the head stay so anything that can make it easier is good. Also setting the pin on the goose neck with a ring-a-ding is tough for me as it's small and close quarters.

One other thing that would help me is to be able to pin the gin pole as now I connect to the mast step and on my M25 it;s very close/tight also. In looking through forums I thought I saw pictures where some were pinned to a small fitting in front of the step. If I could find where to purchase this fitting it would help me shave a few minutes. Just as a not for me and on my M25 I have stanchions just forward ot the step so I figure I could have a couple loops welded to these and use them for baby stays and not have to drill a hole in the deck.

[MAC-A-TAC]

Hello voltzwgn,

I only use SS hitch pins on the spreaders everything else gets SS clevis pins.

MAC Out.

[kevinnem]

I didn't read the whole thread, but I will toss in my 2 cents. firstly, I find the mast raiseing system okay (26x ) I wonder if someone has ever added an electric winch winch for "raiseing with a button".

For me I have 2 issues that I find create the most of my concern/time.
1) that the spreaders have to "feed" under the life lines. All of this with the sail, boom, genoa, fuller, ect on the mast.
I think I saw one design were teh mast was much higher up.


2) getting the mast raising system tight enough, (it seems to bend the mast a bit) so that I can drag the awkward genoa and fuller forward, and trying to get that pin in there. There has to be a better way to do this, I want some system that "pulls" the genoa forward, and locks it in . I was at one point thinking you could use a cleat, and block, but I want something more substantial.

I was also thinking that you could add a track of some sort, and keep the genoa attached, and "pull the mast base back", rather then the top off the mast forward. It seemed this idea didn't get far in my head due to a number of reasons.

2a) my mast crutch doesn't work worth $#!~ "rolling back" it tends not to roll , but just bend it back wards.