Where in Florida to modify our mast to be iCW friendly?

[SV Emmy Kate]

Hello All,

We have a 2013 Lagoon 400 catamaran. We'd like to modify the mast height from 67' to 63' to become ICW friendly. We are currently in Cartagena, Columbia sailing our way back to the east coast of Florida.

Can someone recommend a professional service around the east coast of Florida preferably in the Ft Lauderdale/Miami area that has experience with this type of service and the cost associated with it?

Regards

Erik
SV Emmy Kate

[Leadfree]

Contact Sailing Services of Miami

[SV Emmy Kate]

Originally Posted by Leadfree

Contact Sailing Services of Miami

Great thanks !

[jcapo]

Christian Dam


https://www.damrigging.com/

[MIRELOS]

sailing services

[ArmyDaveNY]

Originally Posted by SV Emmy Kate

Hello All,

We'd like to modify the mast height from 67' to 63' to become ICW friendly.

If your mast is 63 feet, you may still have issues if you have antennas or other items mounted on the top of your mast.

Will you transit across the St. Lucie Canal to the west coast? If so, the railroad bridge at Indiantown is only 49 feet tall. Also, I believe that some of the bridges on the panhandle are 62 feet at low tide.

Finally, there is some question about a few of the bridges on the ICW. Some of them have supposedly settled and are not at the listed heights. You may have to wait for the tides in a few cases.

[Cheyne]

Personally if I went to the trouble of cutting the mast down for the ICW I would go 61ft. Our 380 is 57ft and we are not even close. We have been up and down the entire ICW 5 times now. We see taller ICW friendly boats anchored waiting for a tide change to get under a bridge. Generally though most have no problems.

Cheyne

[smj]

Originally Posted by Cheyne

Personally if I went to the trouble of cutting the mast down for the ICW I would go 61ft. Our 380 is 57ft and we are not even close. We have been up and down the entire ICW 5 times now. We see taller ICW friendly boats anchored waiting for a tide change to get under a bridge. Generally though most have no problems.

Cheyne

I would agree with this. We knocked the windex off our 62’ mast 3 times on the east coast ICW. Some bridges aren’t marked and others are mismarked.

[SailingHarmonie]

I wonder...

Of the boats that complain about mislabeled bridges, how many have actually measured their own mast height while at light ship load and really know for sure that the bridge is wrong and not their own number for mast height?

Knowing how incredibly inaccurate most manufacturers numbers are for weight and other performance dimensions, I certainly wouldn't trust a manufacturer's air draft number if I knew it was critical for bridge clearance.

That said, I do know that bridge heights change with traffic load, air temperatures, solar heating of the bridge deck, and other things I am sure are smaller but still matter if inches count.

[smj]

Originally Posted by SailingHarmonie

I wonder...

Of the boats that complain about mislabeled bridges, how many have actually measured their own mast height while at light ship load and really know for sure that the bridge is wrong and not their own number for mast height?

Knowing how incredibly inaccurate most manufacturers numbers are for weight and other performance dimensions, I certainly wouldn't trust a manufacturer's air draft number if I knew it was critical for bridge clearance.

That said, I do know that bridge heights change with traffic load, air temperatures, solar heating of the bridge deck, and other things I am sure are smaller but still matter if inches count.

When you pass under a bridge labeled at 63’ with no problems then hit the next bridge that’s labeled 63.3’, something’s off?

[The Yacht Rigger]

We've done many mast shortening projects at The Yacht Rigger - and do all our own work in house, welding, electrical, etc.
Would require you coming around to Tampa bay, but it's an area worth exploring anyway.
info@theyachtrigger.com

[theBigKahuna]

No matter how short it is, you'll always get a 'spinkter alert' going under bridges. We were 64' and change, scrapped under one bridge, scrapped all the head gear off @ Wilkerson Bridge NC.

Just read all the waterway reviews and follow the tides!

FtL's got tons of resources. Just Cats is quite reputatable (though you do pay for their expertise!)

jBrad
sv Fuzzy Logic

[LAGERTHA]

We have transit the ICW from Norfolk to Fort Pierce appx 4x. Our mast height with antennas is 62'. Have yet to have any issues regardless of tides.

[sailnautilus]

Would highly recommend MACK Sails in Stuart Florida. They have a boatyard with the technical skills to modify the mast and rigging, as well as a sail loft to do any sail modifications. We had them rerig a 52’ Kanter and make a complete set of sails and have been very satisfied.
They will be much less expensive than anything further south in Florida and Stuart is a nice place to spend some time.

[thinwater]

The actual luff of the main will go from about 57' down to 50', according to the choice. That's 12% or a single reef. The boat is going to go from being somewhat under powered to very under powered most of the time. Slow and less weatherly.



I'd be thinking about things I could do to increase drive to compensate (bigger jib, longer boom), unless sailing performance is not important. It may not be. I would then consider what those changes do to balance; upset the balance and tacking may become very difficult. In fact, cutting the mast down will change the balance.


Just sayin'. Cutting 5-8 feet off the stick is NOT a small change.