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 !