Raise and Lower Mast with Boom

[Bimmerguy]

Hello again All

We are moving our boat to a new marina this season and plan to explore other lakes through the Trent waterway. We will occasionally need to lower our mast about 15’ to get under bridges, I’ve gotten quite good at raising and lowering it, even with my Furler on (Video to come), my question to you all is, can this be done with the boom and Main on?? Thank you, I’d go and try it right now but there’s two feet of snow on it until May.... Thank you.

[Tomfoolery]

15 ft above the water isn't nearly as far down as its trailering position, so I would think that if you slide the main sail slides up a bit so they're not bunched on the boom, you could use the topping lift (if you have one) to raise the boom enough that you could lower the mast enough to clear. If it works, mark the topping lift line so you know where to set it for mast lowering. Just watch out for clearance with the companionway sliding hatch.

But I'm afraid I don't have a definitive answer, as I've never tried it.

[Bimmerguy]

Great, any advice is helping.. I do indeed have a topping lift, good idea, the first few times may be tricky..

[Tomfoolery]

If it were me, I'd pull the boom up and see how high it will go. Probably have to slide the sail up 'til it's tight against the tack fitting while doing it, but it should be fine once it's up there. Then see how low you can go before something hits something else, on the trailer, then subtract the distance from the waterline to the ground.

[kurz]

well, I trailered already 10times with the mast down and the boom and the mainsail not taken away.

So, hope this is the answer to your question...?

[JoeG]

I also trailer with the sail under its cover attached to the boom and the boom attached to the mast and have not noticed any stress on the sail. I leave the sail attached to the mast also because I have slugs.
I use the main halyard to raise the boom as high as I can get it and then tie it to the mast with Bungee cords. I also bungee the vang and sheet to the boom and mast.
One thing to be sure of is to slide the companionway hatch all the way aft to give a few more inches of clearance for the boom. Having a rotating mast makes this possible.
This cuts a lot of time off rigging and un-rigging.

[robbarnes1965]

One thing to remember: make sure you tie a line from either side of the mast at the same point that you attache the mast raising kit and then down to the base of the nearest stanchion on each side. This is to compensate for the lack of tension on the baby stays once the mast is lowered a bit. Any rocking from side to side will not be good to your mast raising kit at the base. I learned this by watching mine bend with a gust of wind from the side. You can' always point into the wind in a canal. In effect, you are making an extra set of stays. I would also rig some sort of mast support higher up. This could simply be a long 2x4 with a piece of plywood attached to the top of it cut to accommodate the mast.

[Boblee]

We travel with all sailing hardware attached but our front and rear mast supports are higher than normal but would be extremely careful doing it without raising the rear one, the previous advice is spot on including using the topping lift to raise the boom prior.
Running with all gear attached certainly saves a heap of time loading and unloading but also saves bouncing the mast around to get spreaders above the lifeline, when dropping mast mid voyage dropping to the rear support is no problem.

[Retcoastie]

I have laid our mast completely down on the sliding hatch cover with the mainsail in the mast track and in the boom track. I did, however, have to separate the gooseneck. This allows the boom and the mast to lie right next to each other without stress.

[Paulieb]

Don't forget to unhook the boom vang. The boom and sail also adds quite a bit of extra weight as you are lowering the mast, so take that into account as you are lowering if you are not used to it. Bady stays are also a must have and not optional. I've done it a few time to save setup time, but I find the extra weight cand make the whole setup a bit unweildy, but that was for trailering and you are ducking under bridges, so I would think that would be easier.

Paulieb