Re: [ecpa] raising the mast on a potter19

Rich Gort (rich@gorts.com)
Sun, 26 Dec 1999 12:01:14 -0800 (PST)


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West Wight Potter Website at URL
http://www.lesbois.com/wwpotter/
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My $.02 worth.

First of all let me say that like Dr. Judy, my P19 has the old heavy mast.

In my younger days, I used to raise it myself, lifting it from the
cockpit, but hateing every moment, especially when one of the shrouds
caught on something. I'm 6'3" and 250 lbs and it still was one hell of a
job, but I could (barely) do it alone.

I then went to a system like Ted Duke describes, using the jib halliard
and wrapping it 2 wraps around the bow pulpit. This takes 2 people, but
worked just fine. I would lift the mast to start, then just kind of
guide it along. The only problem with this method is that it is kind of
scary for the person on the line, and if you draft a stranger to help it
is kind of intimidating to them.

This year I mounted a block on the bow pulpit and found that I could tie
the jib halliard to the trailer winch line and just winch the mast up and
down. This is by far the best of the three methods, and as long as you
don't mind needing a helper, is all that you need to do the lifting. All
I do now is lift the mast the first few feet on raising and wait for it to
come down and place it in the mast holder when lowering it. It is not the
least bit intimidating to the person on the winch, my wife loves it, and I
have had no trouble with asking a stranger for a little help. If the mast
support was about 2 ft. longer, I could do it all myself, and may just
make one for the purpose.

None of this helps if you need to raise and lower the mast while on the
water. I would suggest buying the IM raising kit if that were a
necessity. I may mount a cleat on the roof of the cabin in case I ever
need to do that, but it would be a challange without a winch or the
raising system.

Rich Gort
WWP19 #202 SAYOKO (Oct, 83)
Lake Stevens, WA
Sailing Northern Puget Sound and North Cascades Mountain Lakes