Mast raising system

[brackish]

I'm a new owner of a 23/IV as of 6/26.  I have big boat experience but this is my first trailerable (or transportable in the case of this boat), so many questions to come in the future.  Please Be patient.

The boat has the trailer mounted mast raising system, however, my first experience with that left me considering some improvements or something different.  Has anyone installed the MacGregor component system on a 23?  If so I'd sure like to connect to see how that went.

Thanks

[kchunk]

Hi there Brack... I have a 91 23/3, and like you, downsized to this boat from a Catalina 27, so this whole mast raising and trailering was brand new to me too. That said, in the year and a half I've had my boat we've stepped the mast 6 times or so and trailered her over 2000 miles (mostly to the Keys and back). For what it's worth, I still haven't gotten the process down pat but I think the launching and retrieving are more stressfull than raising the stick.

Since I've owned my 23 I don't think I've seen two trailers alike. Ours is the original Performance trailer (they're out of business now). Out trailer also has a type of mast raising dealy that i think is original. It has a 2" telescopic frame extension mounted on the upright that the trailer winch is mounted to. On top of this extension is a pulley. The best way I've figured to use this is extend the frame extension, raising the pulley up above the bow rail. Then, take the winch cable from the bow eye, pull out a bunch of slack (watch the meat hooks), and run the cable up the frame extension, over the pulley and aft, over the bow to a halyard. If the mast were heavier, I'd suppose I'd need a gin pole, but all I do is just lift the mast a little to get the raising cable over center and have my son or wife crank the winch on the trailer.

One of the things I hate about raising the mast is that until the mast is near vertical, it's pretty unstable side to side. I leave the aft lower shroud and the upper shroud at full tension and disconnect the forward lower as well as the forestay. Despite this, the pivot points of the connected shrouds and the mast at the step are different so once the mast leaves the vertical you lose side to side stability until the mast is low enough for someone (me) to reach. I used to tell my wife, "when I say go, you crank as fast as you can and don't stop no matter what". It got hairy a few times but we never broke anything.. anything big anyway. This most recent trip to the Keys, I prepared a bridle for the mast and it worked real well! Now, we can crank the mast up and down all day long without worry and the mast, for the most part, remains in the vertical plain, with no side-to-side motion.

I don't have any pictures of the bridle I made, but I got most of the info from various sources on the internet. The hardest part is taking the pivot point from the mast step and projecting it to a point in space and taking the measurements for the bridle legs. If you need any info or have any other questions (on anything regarding your 23) don't hesitate to post. This site is a great resource and you'll find a lot of info!

--Greg

[brackish]

Thanks, Greg, good information.  Glad to see you're actively trailering, that's my plan also.  Take it on a few trips per year to new sailing areas for week long cruises.  When back, keep it in the water.

My mast raising system has a socket on the trailer (Performance) main center frame about a foot forward of the winch post.  Into this goes a steel tube (heavy) with a pulley on top.  instructions say disconnect the forward stays and the post has two stabilizing lines to hook to the middle stays for lateral support.  Run the winch strap through the pulley and attach to the disconnected forward stay.  Crank up or down.  Didn't work all that well, mast step a little bent up by previous owner due to some side slip, may be inexperience on both our parts.  Fixable, but I want a more streamlined system.  I was thinking about this, but had hoped someone had already done it on a CP-23:

http://www.tropicalboating.com/sailing/mastraising.html

I may give it a shot see how it works.  One benefit is being able to drop it on water if you need to get under a low bridge.

Frank

[kchunk]

Here's a picture of my boat on the trailer and you're right, the upright with the pulley is forward of the winch upright. We might have the same trailer. (BTW...if yours is the same as mine, you pull two pins and you have a 2' tongue extension.)



My tube telescopes. In the picture it's retracted and with it extended, the pulley is up above the pulpit...and you're right...it's HEAVY!

I've seen the mast raising system you linked to. I don't see why it can't be adapted to a Com-Pac. Personally, it seemed like a lot of monkey motion to me. I'm sure if you truly trailer sailed, it become second nature, but as infrequently as I do, I'd have to relearn how to run the monkey motion each time.

Where will you be calling your home port? I'm in the Daytona Beach area. We had our 23 in a slip on an inland lake for almost a year, on the ICW in Daytona for 5 months and just a couple weeks ago moved her to the Keys for the summer. The picture above was from a trip to the Keys back in January out of South Dade Marina and that's where I was lucky enough to get a slip this summer. We're heading back down in July with the family. We'll be cruising her down to Marathon where we have a vacation home rented for a week. After the vacation we'll cruise her back to South Dade    Should be a good trip!

--Greg

[brackish]

Single, very hefty pin on mine and there seems to be 30" of male tube on the back side.  Don't know if you get it all to the pin hole, former owners never used it said they never came across a ramp that needed it.

My mast raising tube does not telescope, has a bracket to store it on the trailer inside the fenders.  Because it does not telescope it is both heavy and awkward.

Home port for the next year is Bay Springs Lake, part of the Tenn-Tom system in Mississippi, I live about thirty minutes away.  Will probably sail in the area you describe someday.  One of the reasons I would like an on boat mast drop option is that close friend lives in Boca waterside but has to go under a low fixed bridge to get there.  Would give me a base to sail the area with someone I trust to watch (and use) the boat.

Next Spring, going to trailer to Port St. Joe, family reunion at Mexico Beach, hopefully over the summer sail all areas from Apalachicola, FL to Gulfport, MS.

Well, back to the boat, I'm pulling everything off for clean up and inventory.  Hot job.

Frank