Tim wrote:
Hello,
I need to lower the mast on my space sailer 22 (22ft masthead
keelboat) (see earlier messages regarding halyards). I have had
experience doing this on larger yachts (30 and 32 ft) but they involve
some pretty heavy masts. On those boats the technique was to set up an
A-frame using 2 spinnaker poles and lower backwards using substantial
tackles from a winch.


Bruce Bingham has a good chapter on a safe and secure mast lower/raising
system in his book on boat improvement projects.

His system addresses the problem of keeping the upper shrouds tight
while piveting the mast in a tabernacle or base hinge. He also
recommends lowering it forward to take advantage of the boom as a strut
for the intial raising from the horizontal position.

I have scanned this section on the tabernacle system and have placed it
on my web site at http://hood.hctc.com/~esteve/private/books/ ..( The
zip file is named TabernacleMast.zip )

Good luck,

Steve
s/v Good Intentions