Ugggg.

[tmw]

After making a little progress in the slow work cleaning up the peeling paint in my CP-16 cabin, and establishing how to rig a jib furler, I was ready to lower the mast and push it back into the garage.  The sails had been removes, and instead of hooking up a jib halyard to help with the process, I was lazy and loosened the forestay, thinking the mast isn't too heavy, so I'll do it by hand.  Big mistake, and I must be an idiot.

I was going to hand the forestay to my daughter, while I walked aft to guide it, when the mast quickly shifted port heading down quickly.  Did I mention I'm an idiot?

Anyway, here's the damage:


Now, after feeling like I was making progress towards getting in the water, it was like three steps backwards.  At least the screws pop out without destroying too much, and guess I'll have to do some fiberglass work to patch things back up.  Hopefully I've learned a lesson, and will have to figure out how to get it back in shape (and also not too tight so if the mistake happens again, it doesn't remove a huge patch of fiberglass).

Hope others were able to enjoy the beautiful weekend.

[ChuckD]

Oh, no!
I feel your pain.

The good news:
a) It'll never happen again.
b) You'll become an expert glasser.

peace

[Duckie]

Not a big deal.  If you have any experience with cloth and epoxy, it shouldn't take long at all.  I have read over and over on this board that you should not bolt down the mast step so that it will do exactly what yours did in the event of a fall/ dismasting.  I also dropped my mast inadvertently.  Chuck is right, it won't happen again.

Al

[Gerry]

I suggest you make a removable mast crutch at the stern.  Make the mast easier to raise and lower.

Gerry