Sailboat renovation

The mast stepping

June 8, 2019 /

The time had finally come to do the mast stepping! 🙂 If you want to read more about our rig, see our blog posts about the rig HERE. Before starting the mast stepping we had to do some final preparations before getting started. We had to mount the windex, change to LED-bulbs in the lanterns, mount the new electrical horn we bought and do a final check of the masts to make sure everything looked good.

Setting the span for the windex, choosing the slowest boat 😉
The new electrical horn mounted on the mizzen mast.
A lantern with LED-bulbs cost three times more than a lantern with incandescent bulbs. We bought the cheaper one and just changed the bulbs inside th elanterna to LED.

When we felt satisfied with the masts it was time for the mast stepping. We had some friends with us to help during the process, since we never done this before and since we have a keel-stepped main mast it is good to have a person below deck to get it into position.

The main mast ready to be lifted onto the boat.
Up in the air.
Almost there…
Getting the furling system in position.
Main mast in position and mizzen mast mast ready to be lifted.
Lifting the mizzen mast.
The connection for the mizzen mast in the cockpit.
Both masts in position. looking like a real sailboat now!

We connected the rig so that the mast would stand in position and then we started to trim the masts the following day.

First was to get the mast wedges in position. They are used for keel-stepped masts to keep them in position and decrease vibration damages on the deck.
We trimmed the masts following a guide for our type of mast, and tightened the shrouds and stays according to the guide.
Taking a look so the mast isn’t bent in way it shouldn’t be.
The luff groove seen from below, looking pretty straight.
Finally we had to add the top stay between the masts. This stay doesn’t hold the masts in position, as they stand for themselves but it might be nice to have this in position anyway.

By having the masts rigged our adventure feels closer than ever (read more about our plans HERE) and soon we will be able to test sailing her for the first time! 😀

But first we need to finish the plastic work in the cockpit, which we had to put on hold for a while due to cold weather. We have been sanding, adding putty, sanding, adding putty for a long time and we are really close to add the final layer of topcoat in the cockpit.

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