[Rhodes22-list] Mast hoist system

[Mark Kaynor]

Brad,

Our older systems has eyelets on either side of the mast, about 6' up from
the base. We attach lines from these to clips on the port and stbd handrails
on the cabin top to further steady the mast as it's going up. When we get
them tight enough, they provide good stability through the "never, never
land" you mention. We've raised and lowered the mast w/ the boat off level
and we've done it in the slip w/ wakes bouncing us around a bit w/ no
problems. I'm glad we don't have to rush through that part as we lift
because several times we've had shrouds or the aft stays get hung on the
pushpit or other places and had to stop briefly in mid-raising to free them.

The only difficulty we ever had with the mast raising system was when the
aluminum crane tube collapsed on us soon after we bought the boat. Stan said
we had an early prototype made w/ thinner walled tubing than they started
using shortly after, and has since offered a recall on similar cranes if
purchased directly from GB. I ended up just cutting a new tube from a piece
of 2" galvanized EMT (thin wall electrical conduit) and reattached the winch
and other hardware - I made it a bit longer than the original and it works
great, although it is somewhat heavier.

Mark Kaynor

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "brad haslett" <flybrad at yahoo.com>
To: "The Rhodes 22 mail list" <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
Sent: Tuesday, May 27, 2003 11:40 AM
Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] Mast hoist system


> Bob,
>
> I'm assuming you found "never, never, land", somewhere
> around 45 to 60 degrees of mast angle where it is
> somewhat unstable and wants to go to one side or the
> other. Am I correct?  My boat (soon to be their boat)
> has the later model mast raising system with the
> forward mounting point for the hoist but if my high
> school physics serve me correctly it shouldn't make
> that much difference in the force required.  One of
> the keys is speed.  Assuming you have the shrouds
> connected correctly, there is still a period of
> instalibility somewhere there in the middle.  After
> several practices I found that speed through that
> period of instability is the key.  (It reminded me of
> rotation at takeoff on a DC-10 or manual gear
> retraction on a Mooney but that doesn't help much does
> it?)  The first time I raised the mast I did it very
> slowly and nearly scared the dogs**t out of me.  After
> a few attempts I did it at a high rate of speed and it
> went a lot smoother.  Having someone on either side
> holding a line attached to the mast would make it a
> no-brainer but the system is well designed and does
> work single-handed.  The forces change as the mast
> goes up/down but speed hides it.  There are a lot of
> folks on the list with a lot more experience than me
> and hopefully at least one will point out where I'm
> full of, well, let's hope they answer your question.
>
> Brad
> --- Robert Dilk <Robert.Dilk at TRW.COM> wrote:
> > I lowered my mast ( 1975 standard sail) for the
> > first time this weekend. Let's just say no one was
> > hurt.
> >
> > I have looked at the pictures of the GB mast hoist
> > system and have some questions.
> >
> > I would have expected the lifting arm to be mounted
> > directly to the mast base to form a triangle. By
> > having the lifting arm mounted on the coach top
> > separate from the mast is there a lot of force
> > pulling on the mast base?
> >
> > My standard mast has a simple support with a slotted
> > hole for the mast bolt. Does the new system have
> > something special in the mast base?
> >
> > thanks
> >
> > Bob
> > S/V Knot Necessary
> >
> > __________________________________________________
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>
>
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