How Thomas Bodine Raises the mast on a Nimble Artic 24

I have a nimble Arctic 24 or 26. I call it a 26 because if you measure from the bow to the back of the rudder the length is 26 ft.

The mast of a Nimble Arctic or Kodiak is 120 lb in weight. This is difficult for an old man like me to lift alone. It's difficult for three men to lift as a team.

So I designed and tested and built a Gin Pole powered with an electric winch to help me raise the mast. This article describes the process I use for raising the mast.

The mast is held up by a mast crutch when stowed for towing, which I have modified so there's a wheel on the crutch part making it easier to push the mast back before raising or pull it forward prior to towing. When I travel down the road I secure the mast in place with the traveler connected to the fairlead on the top of the mast portside.

First thing I do is prepare the boat and take the Boom and the Mizzen mast and put them on the ground at the stern of the boat.

The Mast has a pivot pin and a locking pin in the Mast Tabernacle. These items must be removed before positioning the mast in its proper position for raising, so I pull out the pins and lay them on the cabin top.

This is a picture of the pins and the mast Tabernacle with the pins removed ready to be pulled back.

Ensure all lines are not Tangled before you start, this particular line is the main halyard and it's tied around the cleat which means I cannot raise the mast when it's in this position.

Next step is to push the mast all the way back until the pivot hole lines up with the pivot pin. Then you put the pivot pin in place like this.

There needs to be a loop for the winch to hook onto. I do this with a piece of half inch rope tied around the bowsprit.

Next step is to lay the winch on the mast. Then fasten the port side support bar to the winch platform using wing nuts and 6 inch bolts. This is a picture of the Gin pole mounted and raised to the vertical. Once this is done the main halyard will look like this when you look aft (sorry this is an old picture, before I switched to wing nuts).

After laying the winch on the mast you fasten it to the mast using the supporting bar. Like this.

Run the main halyard through the upper pulley of the Gin Pole. Run it back to the cleat on top of the Gin Pole in front of the winch and tie it off.

Before raising you must make sure that the aft part of the main halyard goes below the spreaders. You should also make sure that the lazy jacks go below the spreaders. All stays, starboard and port Mast stays as well as the back stay are disconnected.

Stays and the lazy jacks should be lying on the pilot House before raising the mast.

An interesting feature of the stays is that if they are connected then when the mast is almost all the way up, the mast will be pulled down so that it will not clear the mast step.

The main halyard should be secured to the cleats on the starboard side of the mast Tabernacle.

After hooking up the winch to power, you grasp the winch controller in your aft hand and stand beside the mast to raise it. This way you can steady the mast while it goes up.

30% up

60% up note that I had to switch sides because the wind was blowing from the port side. You should raise the mast into the wind and the wind hopefully is light when you do it. The mast is heavy and can easily damage the tabenacle, and winch if it falls to one side or the other.

80% up

The mast is fully up. It Is at this point that you insert the locking pin at the bottom of the mast tabernacle. Mine requires a wrench to screw it in and it also has a hole drilled for a cotter pin which I put in it this time.

This photo is looking forward from behind the raised mast with the winch still attached.

This is a photo of the starboard forward quarter with a boom ready to be hauled up and hung on the Mast.

Next I connect the forestay.

Next I connect the back stay, although I'm wondering about this, I think perhaps it would be better to connect the backstage before the forestay. I have found that it's hard to attach the back stay and I'm thinking about changing the attachments for one of those lever cleats meant for the forestay on smaller boats.

Here is bagatelle with all stays attached and mast mounted as well as the boom. I'm disconnected the gin pole and laid it on the side of the boat either side works so I can grab it and put it in the truck.

And then I go sailing.

Popular posts from this blog

My Saga of Designing and building a Nimble Artic Gin Pole for Mast raising

Image
Bagatelle Gin Pole Design Saga Bagatelle is a Nimble Artic. Her mast weighs about 150 lbs. I can lift maybe 50 lbs above my head. So I find it difficult to raise her mast on my own. I decided to design a gin pole to help lift the mast. I watched a couple of videos on Youtube Raise or Lower a Mast with a Gin Pole (Yachtorial) Andrew Price https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM-FjH_DlqY 1971 O'Day Mariner mast Raise with DIY Gin Pole (Brad Builds Tables) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsReBbNHFsw My first concern was how to attach the gin pole. My first try at attachment was to cut the mast end of the gin pole to fit the mast. Then add hooks to the side to provide a connection for a ratchet strap to hold the pole to the mast. I tried to use this to raise the pole, I found that the gin pole would rotate about the mast so to use it, I needed an extra hand or two to steady both the Gin pole and the mast when going up...
Read more

Bagatelle bow eye replacement

Image
I tried to go sailing at Lake Somerville spent most of the morning trying to raise the mast. Once we had the mast up we went to launch the boat and found that the motor wouldn't run so we pulled the boat back out and I noticed in the morning that the bow eye was loose. On the way home there was some traffic on 290 coming in. I had to stop suddenly and since the boat wasn't really connected to the winch it slid forward past the winch and so now I have some gel coat to fix. So I decided to pull out the bow eye that I had bought earlier and put it in the holes that were vacanted by the old bow eye. Looking through the hole I could see that there was no obstructions.The bow eye that I purchased was just a little bit different. The dimension up to down was skinnier than the old bow eye and the holes in the bow post The wood that goes at front of the Bow. So taking a hammer I banged the new Boweye in. It fits snugly but then when I went inside the boat ...
Read more

on charging the car during my retirement trip 2023

Image
Fort stockton texas I plugged in the car through the door into the room. El Paso, Texas at the Quality Inn. I ran the cable through the window which I could open and plug it in the room. Truth or consequences New Mexico I ran the cables through the window which I could open and plug it in the room. Albuquerque new mexico At the Red Roof Inn.. I parked close to an exterior plug plugged in the hallway, everything was good.  Crestview New Mexico at the super 8 I could open the window and run the cable through the window, plug it in the room. At The Quality Inn in Baton Rouge. I found an exterior plug by the pool charged the car there. In Lafayette Louisiana. I asked permission to run the cable through a door and plug the car in the hallway. In New Orleans, I stayed at a hotel. That was a mile from a high Speed charger in a park and I walked or skated back-and-forth. From the car to the hotel every night. In Crestview, Florida. I stayed that the Hilton motel (which is not a...
Read more