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wrote:
Here in N. FL. its sometimes an adventure getting anything done on "One
o' them damn sailboats". I went to Carabelle, Fl to get my mast
stepped. The woman told me "We aint never done that afore" so I asked
about their insurance and remarkably thye had it. The mast steppers
were a crew of 3 oyster shucker drop outs who musta given up cuz the
oysters were smarter than them. They decided to sorta use the travel
lift but couldnt figger it out so they just used its cross beam. They
found two pieces of old rope lying round on the ground and tied em
together, threw em over the cross beam, other end went to the bumper of
on old truck painted with camo colors. The bumper was tied on with an
equally ragged piece of rope. They tied the rope around the mast near
the spreaders, revved up the truck so it belched oily blue smoke and
slowly pulled it up the ramp and miraculously my mast rose to vertical.
Cuz the only thing they destroyed was the VHF antenna I gave em each a
tip and saw em all take off for the bar. I think it cost maybe $120.00.

At the Yacht Squadron I frequented, they had a large crane type
apparatus just for this operation.
Usually the boat owner would help the 'yard staff' in the process.
Everyone seemed to know what they were doing, probably because each
spring and fall they handled quite a few spars.
They even had a separate crane that could lift up to 10000 lbs. We used
it to pull our skipper's 28' Viking sailboat out and over the dock for
inspection after the keel hit large underwater boulders.