mast cradle

[theankers]

I store my boat out of the water in the winter.  When I step my mast it rests on the bow pulpit and the stern life-line.  Does anyone know of any way to cradle the mast so that it does not put stress on these structures?  If you made it yourself pictures would help if I need to get someone to fashon it for me.  Thanks, Tony Anker

[fafnir]

Hi Tony,

I do the same thing you do with my Ranger 23.  I just put a couple of saw horses on deck and let the mast rest on those.  Has worked great the last few years.  I was worried the first year that the weight might cause crazing on the deck so I had made some larger pads out of plywood to help distribute the weight.  The last couple of years I haev not done that and it hasn't been a problem.  -Chad

[pchupik]

check out the gallery photos (i think in the 23's ) there is several photos re: someone who did this exact thing and describes how... with pics.

good luck

[Bob23]

Tony: In the winter, I also store my 23 in it's trailer in the back yard. I made 2 cradles from 2x4's to support the mast so I could tinker with her during the winter. The mast is high enough so I have 6 foot headroom in the cockpit. Over the mast is a silver tarp from Harbor Freight to keep the winter weather off the boat. I ran a string of work lights hung from the mast so I have a bright workplace during the winter. When I take the cover off in about 4 weeks, I'll photo the frame and post it here. It's quite ingenious, even if I do say so myself. Withstands all kinds of wind, rain, snow. Cheers! Bob in "Unchained".

[theankers]

To Bob23:  Bob, that sounds great.  I'll look for the pictures here, or if you want you can send to me at theankers@yahoo.com.  Thanks, Tony

[Bob23]

Tony: I found some pictures of the supports with and without the cover on tucked away in the bilge of my computer. Not being a computer whiz, as soon as I figure out how to send 'em, you will have 'em. Cheers and fair winds, Bob in NJ. ps where do you sail?

[Craig Weis]

Well on my '19' I don't worry about it. 'It' being the added stress on the pulpits from the mast spanning the two pulpits during winter storage.

After all I anchor the 'tac' of my spinnaker to the pulpit and that ought to be a heck of a lot more stress then 1/2 the weight of the mast sitting on each pulpit.

Let's see. The mast weighs x[?] and the weight is spread between two pulpits. So that is 1/2 of x here and 1/2 of x there.

The pulpits are made of 3/4" ss tube that might be 1/8 of an inch thick, [a circle is really strong...they make submarines perfect circles because of this.] And btw ss is no stronger then black iron [steel] tube.

Anyway...Take the thickness in inches times 10,000 lb and divide that by four and that would be about the ultimate strength of the steel pulpit.

Take the weight on the pulpit and count the number of feet that each pulpit has bolted to the deck.

Take the number of feet and divide that into the weight of half the mast on the pulpit and that roughly gives one an idea of how much weight is on the deck per each bolted foot. May be about 20 lb? That might be high I guess.

Stress is all about spreading out the weight.

And I off~set my mast to one side so I can slide open the companionway hatch to go below with out hitting my head or scrunching up my old body too much LOL!!

Where I work we build aluminum motor yachts of 160 to 170 ton. A Palmer Johnson hull has never failed...

This is all a s.w.a.g. but it should be close. skip.