Mast raising prep

Moved the mast forward on the bow to do a dry run looking things over. It gave me a good idea of what I needed to do to get things ready to try raising it myself.

Would still need to go forward another 5-6'

Need to figure a way to lift the spreaders and light over the forward mount.

Mainsheet was 65'(right), new one on the left is 90'

There's a couple things I need to think over. The mast is heavy for lifting myself but I need to think of how the mast will be lifted for the spreaders and the light to go over the forward mount. During the dry run, I put a line over the bottom part to keep it from lifting too high. I bought a longer line for the mainsheet that will be used to raise the mast. I can still keep the shorter one as a working line while actually out on the water.

Trailer Brakes

Recently replaced the brakes on the trailer. Old brakes were hydraulic surge brakes. What that means is the brakes activate when the tow vehicle stops, and the weight of the trailer pushes into the actuator at the tongue.

New brakes are electric. In this case, when the tow vehicle starts to stop, it activates the electric brakes right away and helps slow the tow vehicle down.

Installing the new brakes took a couple visits to the marina. First visit, I got 4 of them on, then the following week, I got the last two on.

28 Sep 2019:

I drilled/tapped into the trailer frame to mount a junction box and a breakaway kit. The breakaway kit is a battery that is supposed to activate the brakes to prevent a runaway trailer if it comes off the tow vehicle. I used blue Loctite on the threads mounting both pieces. I used smaller bolts on the breakaway battery box. When I used the tap to cut the threads in the first hole, it snapped. Took a while but I got the broken piece out. I went to the store to get a replacement and finished that hole and made another one, going slower to prevent another break.

showing placement of junction box and breakaway kit

barely enough to hold on to for removal...

...but I eventually got it out

covered wires until I can get to it

5 Oct 2019:

This past weeeknd, I did most of the wiring. Used marine grade wire and marine grade connectors with heatshrink. Probably overkill but I'm sure the wires will last a long time. I also replaced the taillights and installed a new 7 pin connector to plug into my truck.

trailer moved next to the boat

steel line to fish wires through the frame

electrical tape only used to cover the center of the 3-way

blue wires for the brakes

new taillights from Harbor Frieght. nice bight LEDs

junction box wired up. color coded fairly well

7 pin connector with plastic cover over the wires.

left over supplies

Wiring job itself probably isn't the greatest but I was able to get it done enough to test out the turn signal/brake lights. I still need to wire in the breakaway kit and adjust the brakes. Otherwise, it's pretty much ready to go.

Mast Decisions

Over the last couple weeks, I have been looking at how I can at least get the mast up. Other owners are able to raise their own masts. I happen to have a video on the boat made by another owner. Have watched it several times over the past week alone.

Got some clevis pins and test fit one of the spreaders.

Before deciding to try self-raising the mast, I was talking to the manager at the marina about it and for them to do it, the boat would have to be in the water and they use a forklift to lift the mast.

ok.

I figured, I now have the last seacock installed on the boat. Maybe if I can get it to FLOAT long enough, I can get the mast up. I pulled out the shaft and coupler hardware to install that to the engine... But, it didn't line up. Great, now I need someone to help align it since it's pretty far off. Well, I'll figure that out later. This is where I seriously considered raising the mast myself.

Back to the mast. Yesterday, I looked around at it. Pulled out the standing rigging to lay it all out. The main part of being able to raise the mast seems to be a modified shroud. I just need to shorten the long shroud to the level of the mast step tabernackle and add a shortened piece below it to the chainplate. Sounds easy enough but will take some planning. I looked at the video a few more times in the boat.

Aside from needing to modify the shroud, I will need to come up with a holder for the mast at the bow rail. Others have used bow rollers, but the one's I've seen are pretty expensive. I'm looking into plywood, at least for now, that can hold the mast at the bow, and prevent it from wanting to roll over.

Took some measurements around the mast bottom. I also took a turnbuckle and a triangle plate I luckily found locally and set it out trying to visualize the mod.

turnbuckle to the chainplate, triangle plate to the pivot point

Here, I'm just trying to get an idea of how I would do this. And, where I would cut. I also looked at the turnbuckle trying to decide how much slack I should put in it. With it opened up, it was about 11 inches, but with all the threads in the turnbuckle body, it made it 3 inches shorter. Maybe I could have it 1 inch shorter and that could give me some room to tune the rig when it's up. I tried measureing the chainplate to the mast step height difference, but may need to do it a couple more times, just to make sure I cut the shroud at the right place.

picked a point on the turnbuckle, came to about 11 inches

pushed the wires in, to get this measurement and something flew out and stung me. Not too bad, but it hurt for several minutes. I was getting an idea of size for bow support.

Ordered some hardware for the modification. So, until I get that and look over things some more over the next couple (few? several?) weeks, I won't be doing too much with the mast. Hopefully this idea goes well.

The Last Seacock

With the last seacock installed for the cockpit drains, I thought I'd show what I did to get it ready.

I have a sheet of G10 Fiberglass board, I used a couple hole saws to cut to size. Drilled holes for the bolts but then drilled out a larger size on the bottom to epoxy the bolts into place. I had a small tube of LifeCaulk on hand and used it to seal the threads. I think I used 4200 or Sikaflex 291 before but it should still work just the same.

One difficulty was having to use a couple wrenches to tighten the fittings together. Having the pieces already together helped for alignment when installed on the boat.

Really not a lot to it. This is the same way I prepared the other seacocks I've installed with new G10 backing boards.

There's sitll a couple old seacocks on the boat. I'd like to get rid of the one in the starting battery compartment. There's also one in the head under the counter top. Right now, if I tried doing that work, It would further delay getting the boat ready so they're going to wait right now.