[Alberg30] dropping the mast...

[George Dinwiddie]

No, the photos show the butt going aft.  See 
http://www.alberg30.org/maintenance/SparsSailsRigging/UnsteppingMast/9-TakeDownMast.html 
   where Mike walks the base aft along the side deck to the lazarette. 
For the butt to go forward, you would have to rig the A frame in front 
of the mast, since the mast has to swivel under the frame.  The basic 
idea is that you want a lifting point that's above the mast base when 
the mast is vertical and near the balance point of the mast when it's 
horizontal.  You'll notice in those photos that in the initial lifting, 
the force is taken by a cleat at the base of the mast.  At the end, the 
force is taken by the loop around the mast.  Halfway in between, things 
get a little dicey and you want to proceed smoothly and quickly (but not 
hastily) through this phase.

I would not recommend taking your mast down yourself if you're just 
referring to this article and haven't experienced doing it yourself. 
There's a lot of things you need to do right and very little chance to 
right a wrong once you lift the mast.  Even after helping in this 
process a number of times, I would be reluctant to do it without Mike 
Lehman's help.

The first time we pulled our mast, Bob Montgomery led the operation and 
we used the crossbeam of the travellift for the lifting point.  Other 
people use a gin pole or crane.  Jim Palmer used to use a highway bridge 
that he had to go under to get his boat home when he pulled it for the 
winter.  There's lots of ways of skinning this particular cat.

The rig breaks down approximately in half, so it's probably about 13 
feet when broken down.

As for your mast foot casting, here's what Steve Weingart's article in 
the Maintenance Manual says, "A local welder with aluminum experience 
repaired/filled in the corners and finished the job that the previous 
owner had started of sistering a 1/4" hard aluminum plate on the bottom 
of the casting (he had tacked the plate on, but didn't fix the corners 
leaving a very uneven surface for the bolts/washers to ride on).  The 
job only set me back $40 since I had the plate."

  - George

Bill Blevins wrote:
> The photos on the Alberg 30 Web site show the butt going forward. Does it matter?
> 
> Also, how long is the A frame when disassembled?

-- 
  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
   George Dinwiddie                             gdinwiddie at alberg30.org
   The gods do not deduct from man's allotted span those hours spent in
   sailing.                                    http://www.Alberg30.org/
  ----------------------------------------------------------------------

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