Don’t Bring Me Down...
If you are an ELO fan, you will know this song as one of their best. I mean this in a figurative sense, and not a literal one, because the mast definitely does need to come down so I can complete some essential projects and repairs; I just hoped it would go smoothly, which is quite optimistic where boat projects are concerned.
Since I have never lowered a mast on a Laguna 26 (or any boat for that matter!) I spent quite a lot of time looking at YouTube videos and lurking on boat forums, trying to get a handle on how the process works and what can potentially go wrong. One of the first things I learned is that it’s best to do this when the boat is out of the water and on a nice stable platform; and of course I ignored this first recommendation (at my own peril) since this was not really an option for me seeing as I don’t have a trailer to haul the boat out onto. I would just have to pick a calm day and hope some huge motor cruiser didn’t come along and generate a large wake during the lowering process which might wrench the mast right out of its bracket while in transit.
Next, I had to fabricate retention brackets to mount on both the bow pulpit and stern radar arch (so there’ll be a way to secure the mast once it’s down), a cradle (also mounted on the radar arch) and a “pulpit leverage pole” to mount at the base of the mast.
Basically, here’s the way to lower the mast on a boat like this once the retention brackets, cradle, and leverage pole are all in place:
1) Attach one end of the main halyard to the stemhead fitting on the bow and the other end to the winch on the mast. Once the halyard is tightened and secured, loosen the backstay enough to disconnect the forestay (including the furling unit) from the bow.
2) Remove all shrouds except for the two lower shrouds attached at the aft chainplates. As the mast pivots backwards and down, these shrouds will get progressively looser since their pivot point is aft of the mast’s pivot point.
3) Find two friends and place them on either side of the boat, each with a line that runs to the masthead (or mid-mast); I used the other halyard and the topping lift. These friends will be your “surrogate shrouds” as the mast is lowered; they will keep the mast centered and guide it into the cradle.
4) Send a prayer up to the deity of your choice, ensure the halyard is wrapped around the winch (I used three wraps), grab the leverage pole and pull up to start the mast on its journey aftward and downward. Once the mast is at about a 45 degree the halyard will fit into the notch at the end of the leverage pole. Control the rate of descent with enough halyard tension to allow the friction on the winch drum to absorb the load.
5) Once the mast is lowered into the cradle, you can disconnect the bolt holding the base of the mast to its deck bracket. You can then move the mast forward until the base of the mast is secured in the bow retention bracket. Once that is done, someone can support the top (aft) end of the mast as you remove the cradle and finally lower the top (aft) end of the mast into the retention bracket on the stern radar arch.
A few things to watch out for:
**make sure the shroud turnbuckles are free to pivot aft as the mast comes down; otherwise, they may get bent or damaged.
**make sure the cradle is placed far enough aft so that when the mast is lowered the spreaders end up in front of the cradle.
**you want the distance between the top legs of the cradle wide enough to give you a large target to shoot for as the mast is lowered, but not too wide so that the upper shrouds (above the spreaders) snag on the cradle as the mast is lowered.
**ensure you remove any hardware on the lower aft side of the mast; otherwise, it may puncture the cabin top as the mast is lowered, depending on the height of your cradle.