Gin pole mast raising

[crashkahuna]

Some good advice here about dealing with the side to side movement as that will get you into trouble. I've used gin pole with a mounted brake winch and cam cleats to adjust side stays to drop mast into a tall crutch that connects to rudder mounts. Here's an interesting way to lower mast going down to the bow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4s1aS6T0Rs0

[gbowen]

I attached the wrong file. Here is the correct one.

[JerseyJoe]

Originally Posted by Bor the Wolf

Sideways movement is best prevented by a set of special mast lowering shrouds. They are shrouds attached to pivot points in line with the mast pivot pin. This ensures the tension on the lowering shrouds does not change while the mast is lowered.

As an alternative, on some boats the main shroud attachment point can be moved up to line op with the mast pivot pin. Then the main shrouds double as lowering shrouds. This is how it is on my boat. I have a stainless steel triangles on deck that allows the main shroud to stay tensioned while the mast comes down.

Other than that my A-frame is permanently attached to the boat. It was build by a yard in stainless steel. It follows the curve of the foot rail when not in use and the stay with the Genoa furler is permanently attached to the A-frame After raising the mast, all that needs to be done is to secure the A-frame to the bow, tension the back stay and we are on our way again. The system allows me to shoot bridges in 5 minutes or less.

What size boat? Would be curious to see rig as I was considering similar system for inland/canal cruising. I use a bipod/A-frame that uses a crew of 2-3 for a 41' Famet mast. Sounds like your system saves time on A-frame set up and lowering. Any pics?