Removing a deck stepped mast on a Catalina 30

[carlspackler]

Tall rig (I think that's 44 feet). I asked one guy who was recommended by my Marina. My boat is on the hard now, and he said I'd have to dunk her so he could use the crane on the travelift. My Marina (in Jersey City, NJ) has no other equipment beyond that lift. The guy is probably qualified. He quoted $115 / hour, estimated about 5 hours. The marina might want 300 more to mobilize that lift, though they owe me on the haul out (I never launched this year -- long story).

Anyone else I can get a quote from? It seems with the right equipment this might be cheaper/quicker. Either way, one should always get two or three quotes.

Why am I doing this? Bad VHF wire, bad anchor light, broken windex and a frigging leak right behind the mast that persists even with two covers on the boat-- one from stem to stern.

[Navicula]

115$ per hour and 5 hours ?........is that to re install the mast after you fix everything???

[Jim Cate]

Don't know anything about NJ, but in Oz it is common practice to hire a mobile crane for mast work. They drive to the yard where you have everything ready to be released (rigging screws un-pinned and broken loose and lubed, etc) your rigger hooks up the crane to the mast and supervises the initial lift, wires are undone and off she comes. Should take less than an hour at the boat, but they usually charge travel time to and from their place of business.

So, a few calls around the area should get you reliable cost data and you can compare with using the travelift's mast crane.

Cheers,

Jim

[Cheechako]

It can be done with the travelift but long and slow. Often the fee for removing a mast is about $150. He's way to high. Should use a yard with an appropriate mobile crane. Maybe wait til you are back in the water and have it removed by someone with the proper equiptment. if you disconnect everything it's maybe a half hour job, figure an hour most. Crane fee often $150 per hour.

[zeehag]

dang in mazatlan they used 4 strong men and some extra line handlers and lowered it in 1/2 hour...restepping it took all of 2 hours then beer..lots of beer....yes was a catalina 27, and it belonged to rafael, the veterinarian known as la jungla.....and they also used a cheoy lee 42in the next slip for the winches......

they were 2 slips over--i was enlisted to assist--i had to make sure all was straight ..lol.junior supervisor, or as it usually is stupidvisor....didnt have to do much until one line slackened too soon......was fun
no money just food and beer..lol
many different ways to do it , depending on locale, habits and monopolies...g ood luck.

[Benz]

You can easily do it yourself with a sheer-legs made from 2x6s. Join two 16-footers end-for end for each leg, haul upright with a halyard, stay it all thoroughly, then lower away the mast. You can see pictures of this is progress in the Cruising World archives--search "Ben Zartman Sheer-legs shenanigans" on their site. It's dead easy and cheap to do--certainly cheaper than the options you've listed.

[carlspackler]

Okay, I appreciate all the input. Yes yes, it's trivial easy, and yes I did it on my Catalina 27, but (as the ladies know) size matters. Yes, I worked out the geometry on paper, and at ~44 feet we are talking about ~300 lbs of aluminum, maybe less. The boat is on stands, on land, that is not an insubstantial amount of aluminum to lift, rotate, and lower stably while perched on supports. I'd rather deal with a rigger for now.

Now, if someone had a phone number of a person in the area that they recommend, that would be even more appreciated.

[Target9000]

My suggestion is to call a few local businesses that use cherry picker cranes. Some ideas are the guys that do Air conditioner installations. (The often have to lift units ontop of buildings). Those guys usually charge 100 bucks and hour or so down here. You could get 1 hour to remove and one hour to replace if the yard will let them in and assuming it is cheaper that way.

[carlspackler]

I was hoping for someone with a crane and boat experience. The NJ area is full of cranes but the traffic is so awful, that I am not hopeful that the price will be lower with transport cost. Well, I'll make some calls.

There's another guy in the marina with a never ending project. He wants to put his spruce mast up. If we could split the transport costs...

[pistarckle]

I several times called a sign company as they were cheaper than a construction crane .
Many times a mast will be " stuck " to the step and there is some danger of shaking the boat and that's scary when on the hard . I usually let the crane take a tension and then break the mast from the step with a halyard .

[carlspackler]

I am trying craigslist.

Might be the best option.

[csmithers]

I hired a boat yard's crane and me and the yard workers removed it in unison (being sure not to bend the roller furling extrusion). It was way easier than I thought it would be. It took half or so. All you do is wrap a line around the spreaders and pull it up with the crane, it's as simple as that. I don't know why you're paying someone $500 dollars to do it or more. If someone is charging for 5 hours of work it means they're doing everything for you (e.g. moving the boat to the crane and loosening the stays). It's super easy, you should be paying for a crane operator and not some guy to hack together something with a travellift.

[carlspackler]

Originally Posted by csmithers

... I don't know why you're paying someone $500 dollars to do it or more. If someone is charging for 5 hours of work it means they're doing everything for you (e.g. moving the boat to the crane and loosening the stays)....

Am I paying that rate? Why would I be posting here if that were the case?

[scoobert]

if you want to spend a week on the water catskill marina is the best and cheapest.
or if you go further north you can do it for free

[carlspackler]

Originally Posted by scoobert

if you want to spend a week on the water catskill marina is the best and cheapest.
or if you go further north you can do it for free

I am paid up for the winter. I'm not fueling up, putting in oil, antifreeze and launching to forgo the $$$ I paid up front for the winter season. It's a perfect location, twenty minutes from my work in midtown. I get a LOT of work done on her during the week. Yes Nyack yacht club offers this service for free. I am in Jersey City and I like it that way.

Lets stick to references for people with equipment in the NY metro area.