We stepped it up!

   This weekend was all about stepping the mast. We had to do a good amount of problem solving, we had a few harrowing moments, but Ashley and I got it done. Not looking forward to unstepping the mast, but raising it gave me some insight to how the things go, and I will be brainstorming over the next few weeks to come up with a way to make it easier. All told, I think we probably had about 5 hours into stepping it, but the final, successful attempt took about 45 minutes. Another Lancer 25 owner had a digital copy of a manual for a Lancer 28, and while it's a different boat they are similar so the stepping process should be similar. The manual says to start with the mast laying on the bow pulpit and use the boom, main halyard, and mainsheet to make a triangle to pull the mast up, so that's the route we went.     

Sunday night we went out at around 20:30, and came in a little after 23:00. Monday morning we started around 9:30 and had the mast up by 11:30.  The problem I ran into is that with the mast down and in the tabernacle, neither the upper or lower shrouds would reach to the chainplates so I tried hooking the lower shrouds to these other eyes that are a little ahead of the chainplates. The shrouds started out loose, very loose. Too loose in fact to provide any stabilization until the mast gets past 45 degrees. At around 45 degrees I can no longer control the sway of the mast. Sunday night when we tried stepping the mast I was guiding the mast at the bow while Ashley winched the mast up.  The first attempt we didn't get it very high and it started to sway and crashed into the street light pole. The second time it got up to around 45 degrees and began swaying. I almost thought the mast was going to fall over and I was about to just let it go when I got it under control at the last minute. Ashley lowered the mast and we called it a night. Monday morning I tried hooking the lower shrouds to the toe rail where they were a little tighter, but we couldn't go very high before they were too tight to continue hoisting. I tried again with the shrouds a little looser and we were able to get it a little higher. I then hooked the upper shrouds to the toe rail where they were tight enough to offer control, but loose enough to allow us to to hoist higher, then I unhooked the lower shrouds and we went a little higher. When the uppers were getting too tight I rehooked the lowers, unhooked the uppers and was able to raise the mast the rest of the way, and while walking the shrouds in this manner was slow and cumbersome, it was also safe and effective. I have an idea for making a line/ wire that the bottom of the shroud can slide along as the mast goes up and stay tight, but not too tight.

   It was pretty awesome seeing the mast up on the boat, and it actually seems like a sailboat now. It will probably stay up for the next few weeks while I finish up the other projects and work out my plan for making the stepping process faster and smoother. We also had a lull in the wind and I took the opportunity to raise the Genoa just for fun !

The mast is rigged

In keeping with what now seems to be a recurring theme, I didn't get as much done this weekend as I had hoped.

   My goals for this weekend were to finish my work on the mast, get it back up on the boat, and step it (or raise the mast in non-nautical jargon). I did accomplish the first two of three goals.

   Saturday and Sunday I picked away at finishing up the mast. I had to run my new halyards, reconnect my stays and shrouds and topping lift, and make a wiring harness and wire up the lights on the mast. I have an anchor light on top of the mast, the steaming light, and I added a deck light that will give us some night time outdoor lighting while at anchor. I also replaced the antenna wire. Not only did the antenna wire look rough, testing revealed a dead short that probably would have burned up the transmitter in my new radio relatively quickly.

   Ashley and I got the mast back on the boat, but that's as far as we made it. A fellow Lancer 25 owner was able to send me a PDF file of an owners manual for a Lancer 28. They are very similar boats, so much of the info is pertinent including the procedure for stepping the mast. The manufacturer suggests starting with the mast resting on the forward pulpit with the base of the mast in the tabernacle then using the boom as a gin pole and hoisting the mast with the mainsheet. It seems like a good idea in theory but I was unable to try because somehow I managed to loose the pin that connects the gooseneck to the mast. The gooseneck is the hinge between the mast and the boom. I also discovered something that concerns me. In order to get the mast base into the tabernacle, the mast has to go well beyond half way over the pulpit, which means the mast head wants to pivot towards the ground with the base in the air. Because of leverage, this means there is a lot of weight trying make the mast tip and I'm not we will have enough leverage to get the base of the mast into the tabernacle. We'll find out next weekend I suppose!

   We also now have our bottom paint and new plexiglass for the cabin windows, so I have plenty of work waiting for me next weekend!

Bottom paint

It's been a busy few weekends around home with Ashley's craft shows, so we are behind schedule and a Memorial Day weekend launch is not going to happen. Oh well, no point in dwelling!

I got my new used compass, a Plastimo Olympic 185. I had to enlarge the opening in the binnacle for it to fit, but the size is perfect. I haven't screwed it down yet though because I am planning on replacing the red incandescent lighting with green led lighting.

I finally ordered bottom paint yesterday. I had been putting it off because the price made it hard to swallow, but waiting has paid off! I wasn't 100% sure that one gallon would be enough, but I didn't want to buy more than a gallon if I didn't need it. Lucky for me West Marine had one of their bottom paints (the hard kind, not the ablative) on sale for buy one, get one free. I got my extra if I need it, but I only had to buy one gallon!

We're also done with painting the mast. It's not as good as if I had stripped it to bare metal and primed it, but it is most definitely better than it was and should look good for at least a few years. This weekend my goal is to rewire it, run my new antenna wire, get it on the boat and hoisted. My plexiglass for the cabin windows should be here on Saturday, but I don't think I'll have time to get started on that. I also purchased a used vhf radio for it, a Uniden President LTD950. It's fairly old, 1990, but looks very good for its age and other than the internal speaker not working, it seems to function well. I could replace the internal speaker if I wanted, but I think I'll just opt for an external speaker. I may actually already own one.

Compass, mast, hatch

This weekend I got an acceptable amount of work done, though not as much as I would have liked. Ashley helped me get the first coat of paint on the mast. It's looking a lot better. Not as good as if I had stripped it to bare metal and had it painted by a pro, but still a big improvement over what it was. I could have done a second coat, but the threat of rain made me hold off. I also got a used Plastimo Olympic 135 off of eBay. I had to open the cutout in the binnacle for it to fit, but it's a perfect fit. The last thing I got done was resealing the glass in the hatch. I had to pull the glass, clean the whole thing, then use windshield urethane to reseal / glue it back in place. The glass was warped in the corners, so I'm not sure that it is going to fully seal. If not, I'll have to buy new Plexiglas for it.