boating while still rigged for trailering

[PhysicsTeacher]

I love my , but one of my frustrations is when I want to go out on the water for just a couple of hours. There is a great freshwater lake near where I live, and it's a nice half-hour trip up one side of the lake to a public dock with a nice swim area and beach. The problem is that I don't want to spend 45 minutes or more to rig in order to spend a couple of hours on the water (not to mention having to de-rig at the end of the day). I also don't want to completely remove the mast, since I also do longer trips on the ocean for several days at a time.

Basically my thought would be: arrive at the lake, leave the mast pinned in place for trailering, motor out to the public dock without ballast at around 12 knots or so (the lake is typically glassy calm in the morning), arrive at the public dock, tie up, fill the ballast, enjoy the day in the water, and then motor back to the ramp with ballast in at 6 knots (the lake is always lumpy in the mid to late afternoon).So, this brings me to my question:

Do any of you go out for a day trip while leaving your mast still rigged for trailering? I realize that I'll look a little silly, but I own a Mac, so that ship has metaphorically sailed already. Is there any chance that I can do damage to any of the rigging by boating with the mast down? I can't think of anything, but I thought I'd ask the wisdom of the collective group.

Kelvin

[LordElsinore]

I've done it before if I wanted to just test the motor out or maybe just go fishing for an afternoon. The biggest problem I have doing that is hitting my head on the mast every time I try to drive standing up and every time I come up from below, and the front hatch won't open far enough to go in or out.

It's comparatively quick to take the mast off and disconnect the shrouds from the boat and leave it and the sails behind vs putting the mast up and down. If I were going to go use the boat without sailing, I would definitely leave those things behind. I'm thinking of adding some big ladder-hanging hooks on the outside of garage wall near where I park my boat for that very reason - to make it easier to detach and store those things if I ever want to

[Russ]

Erik used to keep his boat mostly rigged while trailering which made rigging much faster.

[LordElsinore]

Wow. I leave mine mostly rigged, including (usually) leaving the mast raiser connected, but I've never tried leaving the boom and mainsail attached to the mast like he did. I will have to try that. Looks like his jib cars were still connected to the tracks as well? I have enough trouble sliding the mast back with just the strouds and mast raiser connected. Also interesting what he did with the top of his jib furler, putting it on a track so he can slide it up the mast in order to not have it hanging off the front of the boat with a support pole connected to the mast etc.

I need to watch that video a second time to see if there are any 'jump cuts' or if it was rolling the whole time. 10 minutes from start to finish with mast up, boom and jib fully attached and rigged etc? That is impressive.

I used to try and speed run through it and decided I'd just try to make setup and tear down part of the fun by opening the cooler first thing and playing while doing it all for the next hour or so. But wow...10 minutes? And that was while he was carrying on a conversation. I take 10 minutes just trying to get the stupid forestay pin in Hmmm

[LordElsinore]

I watched that video for a second time and noticed a couple other things:

- Looks/sounds like he replaced his spreaders with some extendable broom handles - I'm guessing to make it possible to trailer with the spreaders still attached to the mast without them hitting something else (they retract)

- He's got some kind of mid-mast telescoping support which looks like it makes it easier to manuever his mast back and forth / up and down. I'm assuming that's not standard on an but I don't know.

- He's got some shroud protector tubes of some kind down by the chainplates. Maybe that help his shrouds not get tangled?

I also like his foldable trailer steps at the very beginning of the video. I need to look for those

[LordElsinore]

...oh clever...those are foldable mast steps he's put on his trailer

I just ordered a couple of these...we'll see how they do

https://amzn.to/46bf0ls

[NiceAft]

Kelvin,

As you can see with the posts so far, you can leave the mast down and enjoy a day on the water. What I don’t quite understand is this:

motor out to the public dock without ballast at around 12 knots or so (the lake is typically glassy calm in the morning), arrive at the public dock, tie up, fill the ballast

I’m supposing that you have a reason to not fill the ballast at the boat ramp, and instead, fill the ballast after arriving at the public dock. Just wondering.

[Jimmyt]

Do any of you go out for a day trip while leaving your mast still rigged for trailering? I realize that I'll look a little silly, but I own a Mac, so that ship has metaphorically sailed already. Is there any chance that I can do damage to any of the rigging by boating with the mast down? I can't think of anything, but I thought I'd ask the wisdom of the collective group.

Kelvin

If you have a good center support under the mast, and aren’t doing anything on deck, I guess you could do it.

On my boat, there is a lot of stuff on deck, shrouds and stays all over the place, a furled main on a boom, and a mast raising system. So, my deck is pretty unusable. As you point out, the cockpit isn’t great either.

If you want to use it as a power boat only, I would do as suggested above and rig up a way to remove and store the rig. Some owners use their boats as power only.

If I had a big need for 1 or 2 hour boat rides I’d pull my rig.

I have my setup time down to 20-30 minutes depending on how much help I have. 40 minutes to rig for trailering has been hard for me to crack, but I will bring it down. One big hang up is the spreaders. I want to implement some variation of Erik’s solution.

If I can stay on the water for four hours or more, the rig goes up. If not, I go with someone else.

[Be Free]

Kelvin,
I've done may trips on my X with the mast configured for trailering. You get used to it being in the way a bit but it's the only way I use the boat if I can't be out for more than a day.

I spent the better part of a week on an chain of lakes near Cleremont, FL that had several low bridges over the connecting canals and creeks. I never raised the mast the whole time, even when I was on some of the larger lakes. One bridge was so low that I had to take the mast off the support and bring it down to the cabin top every time I needed to get under it.

Bill

[Be Free]

After seeing Jimmy's post I'd like to add that I don't keep my MRS or boom attached when trailering. I also have a hank-on jib that is stored in the cabin. My mast only has the spreaders, stays, and halyards on it when I'm trailering so my cabin top is relatively clear. I seldom need to go on the cabin top anyway when I'm in "trawler mode".

[LordElsinore]

...oh clever...those are foldable mast steps he's put on his trailer

I just ordered a couple of these...we'll see how they do

https://amzn.to/46bf0ls

Got a pair of these bolted to my trailer today. Seem to work well.





Will be much nicer to have a decent place to stand when trying to put the headstay pin in!

[LordElsinore]

I'm thinking of adding some big ladder-hanging hooks on the outside of garage wall near where I park my boat for that very reason - to make it easier to detach and store those things if I ever want to

Added those ladder hooks this weekend and hung my mast and furled foresail on it as part of prepping for winter. Having the mast off and out of the way made it so much easier to wash and wax and all the other things that needed doing. Mostly, it was just nice that I didn't bump my head 1000 times coming up the companion way

[Russ]

Mostly, it was just nice that I didn't bump my head 1000 times coming up the companion way

My head understands that. It really does get in the way.

*sigh* I'm heading to the lake tomorrow to pull the boat for the season. Sad times. Summer is too short.

[Starscream]

I love my , but one of my frustrations is when I want to go out on the water for just a couple of hours. There is a great freshwater lake near where I live, and it's a nice half-hour trip up one side of the lake to a public dock with a nice swim area and beach. The problem is that I don't want to spend 45 minutes or more to rig in order to spend a couple of hours on the water (not to mention having to de-rig at the end of the day). I also don't want to completely remove the mast, since I also do longer trips on the ocean for several days at a time.

Basically my thought would be: arrive at the lake, leave the mast pinned in place for trailering, motor out to the public dock without ballast at around 12 knots or so (the lake is typically glassy calm in the morning), arrive at the public dock, tie up, fill the ballast, enjoy the day in the water, and then motor back to the ramp with ballast in at 6 knots (the lake is always lumpy in the mid to late afternoon).So, this brings me to my question:

Do any of you go out for a day trip while leaving your mast still rigged for trailering? I realize that I'll look a little silly, but I own a Mac, so that ship has metaphorically sailed already. Is there any chance that I can do damage to any of the rigging by boating with the mast down? I can't think of anything, but I thought I'd ask the wisdom of the collective group.

Kelvin

We do this all the time. One of our yearly trips is to stay for a week or so in downtown Montreal to explore our own city, and to do so we have to pass through the Lachine Canal, which has a published clearance of 8ft. With our mast in the usual trailering position we can't make it under the bridges, so we have to unzip the enclosure and lift the mast off of the carrier-pole and lower it on to my shoulder as we go under. To avoid having to put it on my shoulder, I built a wood cradle that holds the foot of the mast higher off of the bow pulpit, which reduces the height at the top of the lowered mast.

With the boat in this configuration we travelled back through the canal and through our lake with winds sustained at 40 km/hr, gusting to 55 km/hr, rolling 45 degrees to 45 degrees with the centerboard and rudders up. No problem...the boat can take a beating despite what internet trolls say.



A view from the cockpit as the weather was starting to move in: