Reflections on a year of aircraft ownership

Morgans wrote:
"brian whatcott" wrote

I rigged a jack staff with a second winch at the trailer head, and made a
wooden tree to fit in the rudder pintle, so that fastening the winch line
to the forestay allows the mast to wind up without too much stress on the
mast footer. But half way to vertical, the mast is apt to sway
sidewards way too much, without a steady line on the foot of each side
stay held by an innocent bystander...

I have a solution for that problem. Rig a loop on each one of the side
stays with a short section of wire rope and U-splice fittings, (or some way
of your own choosing to attach extra lines) up high enough that you can
still reach it when the mast is up. Fix up a rope with two hooks the right
length that you will fix to an added eye on the rails of the boat, exactly
abeam of the mast pivot. If you do it right, you can find the right place
and lengths to keep lines tight on both sides, all of the way up.


I have thought about this kind of setup, more than once. The problem is
the geometry of this particular hull. The mast pivots on the cabin-top,
and the stays fix at the toe rails which are perhaps 2 ft lower, so the
mast goes floppy on the way up. So I sniffed around the internet,
when Richard wanted me to help dropping his mast (Hunter 25)while
afloat. I was struck by a uTube video of a guy raising and dropping mast
while under way to traverse low bridges - single-handed. He rigged an
a-frame whose feet pivoted abeam the mast foot and whose peak folded
down to the pulpit. The peak of the A-frame fixes to the fore stay foot,
so that you could rig a jib halyard back to a cockpit winch. The idea
behind this a-frame is that it starts providing support against
side-sway from about half way down. The first 2 or 3 feet of drop is
still a swaying issue though. The single-hander bear-hugged the mast
with one hand, and loosed the halyard with the other. Neat! This
approach worked for us too using a jury-rig a frame of two spars
fastened together and to the toe rails.

After writing this, I reread your suggestion, and finally got it.
your rig pulls the slack out of the stays on the way up or down.
Yes, that's the idea I needed!
Thanks

Brian W
p.s. Aviation content: with the thermometer at 36 degrees, three primes
gave a start on the first pull last night! I have got it beat...