De-masted sail boat

[John Williams]

Originally Posted by Hartleyg

Also, a keelboat without a mast has a NASTY rolling motion. The usual description is "vicious".


Hartley

Years ago my wife and I went out on her father's 43 foot yacht when its mast had been removed for maintenance. It was just horrible!!! You could not live iwth the extremely unpleasant motion.

[Cargile]

I did not consider the weight of the mast in mitigating roll as a counter weight to the keel. I have never seen a mast off a sailboat. I thought them to be light weight as in lifting with one hand. Apparently not. Thanks for all the insight into my hair brained idea.

[rslifkin]

Originally Posted by Cargile

I did not consider the weight of the mast in mitigating roll as a counter weight to the keel. I have never seen a mast off a sailboat. I thought them to be light weight as in lifting with one hand. Apparently not. Thanks for all the insight into my hair brained idea.

Relatively speaking masts are fairly light. But over their whole length it's still a couple to few hundred pounds. And more importantly it's a long lever arm (much longer than the heavy keel) so the effect on boat movement is large relative to the weight involved.

[rossdv8]

I posted earlier about my experiences using Trailer Sailers without masts at times, but I did not mention my second last boat, which was a keel boat.
I would not have tried motoring 'anywhere' in that without a mast.

The hull shape of the trailable boats was more saucer shaped and I suspect it might have been why they rode well.

The Cavalier was deeper below, and I have a feeling even with the keel it might have been awful even at anchor, so I have to agree with some of these posts, that a mast slows the rolling motion from quicker movements to a slower regular one.

That slower regular roll (but Not the proper slow type you get sailing in heavy weather), however, happens to be the one thing that 'sets me off'. So maybe that's why I was never uncomfortable if I had to spend considerably time on a TS without a mast . .

I can only write my personal experience of this missing mast stuff.. I would definitely turn another 24 - 26 foot TS into a motorboat.

[malbert73]

The most efficient motorboat is probably a sailboat in terms of MPG. But if you’re going to power everywhere a trawler or similar is more comfortable though with more fuel consumption.
When I motored my boat home from dropping off the rig at the yard to have standing rigging replaced, it had a notable snapping type roll.
The issue with leaving the mast is the air draft. I wonder if you could replace the mast with a heavy shorter spar even with something heavy at the end, but much shorter- to allow modest bridge clearance and provide roll inertia.
Aesthetics be damned of course

[rossdv8]

You certainly can. If you look around the net, or in old books you can see various small boats, mostly fishing boats, with a short mast and a boom about the same length as the mast. I asked a bloke about his once, and he told me it had been rigged like that when he bought it. If the small sail was set at anchor, it more or less weathervaned the boat and the bit of wind resistance steadied the thing.

But it wasn't a 'mastless yacht'. It was apparently designed like that. Back in the age of coal and steam . . When dinosaurs roamed the seas . .