We make our first attempt at un-stepping our 65' mast using a 40' crane in order to access the keel bolts underneath for maintenance in preparation for our 6...

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what you got there he'll be a boy

and everything

that looks like a boat dog so yeah we

just got our newest crew member Zeus hi

a brand new little doggy dog the boat

he's yorkshire terrier and he's brand

new we like just got him

hey you oh my God he's cute you guys

make a good pair yeah

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hey guys so as you know we're taking the

mast off the boat as one of the first

steps in getting it ready for the

Bahamas the main reason I'm taking the

mast out is because some of the keel

bolts that I need to tighten and replace

the washers for are located under the

mast step so mass has got to come down

before I take the mast down I need to do

you rig the boat take off all the

running rigging the first thing I did

here was took off the antenna for the

SSB because that is on the backstay so

that had to come off and next I'm going

to be taking off rigging tape and then

I'm going to take all the running

rigging lines and call them up and get

them ready for the mast removal which

we're doing on Saturday I'm going to

remove some rigging tape that's kind of

a rubbery rigging tape so I got to cut

it with a knife

this rigging tape is on each one of

these turnbuckles

and it's basically covering the little

pins that are in here and making sure

that when our running rigging is rubbing

against this it doesn't chafe up our

lines so I'm going to cut all this off

so we can turn these turnbuckles for

removing the mist all right so if now

removed the pins from all of the

turnbuckles when we were ready to loosen

these off the pins won't be in the way

so because we have a hydraulic back stay

I had to let off the hydraulic a bit we

need to remove the table in the galley

here which I've just now done then I'm

going to remove some of these floor

panels here so I can get out the wires

and everything that travels up the mast

all right so I exposed this panel and

access the inside of this part of the

bilge I need to disconnect all these

wires that go up the mast this whole

array needs to be disconnected and

reconnected back when I put the mast in

this exact same way so I need to take

some photos and record that so I had to

do some measurements to make sure that

we could actually like pull this mast

out on our crane we only have like a

40-foot cream here at the club and it's

like 67 feet from the top of the mast to

the waterline but you don't lift the

mast from the very top you lift it from

a point just below the second spreaders

this is the distance from the second

spreaders all the way to the

step which is 36 feet in 4 inches we

need to bring the mast up at least 7

feet 4 inches to clear the deck so

roughly 8 feet

that's just clearing the deck probably 9

10 feet would be safer and down here you

can see that a dream of a picture of the

crane and I measured yesterday with a

tape measure that from this hook to the

top of this dock is 40 feet and then at

very low tide where I went out and took

another measurement of 7 feet 8 inches

from the top of the dock down to the

waterline where roughly our keel step is

going to be here so altogether that's 47

feet and 8 inches if you subtract 36

feet 4 inches from 40 78 inches I got 11

feet 4 inches I only needed 7 feet 4

inches minimum like 8 feet let's say to

clear the dock it looks like we're going

to have 11 feet so this is it today's

the day we're going to remove the mast

everything's ready to go just about

we've moved from our dock over there to

this dock over here with the crane

that's used for removing your mast so

you can tell here that the mast right

now is higher than the crane and that

was one of my main concerns and why I

was doing the math like I showed you

earlier what we're doing here right now

is waiting for the tide to drop so that

the boat will be at its lowest point and

once the boat is that low and we have

that much more space we should be able

to remove the mast you got to watch

these lines when when you're on a dock

that's fixed like this and not floating

like those docks over there so basically

when the tide is dropping these lines

are going to get tight and you have to

let them off as you go so you can't

really like go anywhere you got to stay

here and keep an eye on that I'm gonna

be swinging that arm out soon and I'm

going to be going up on my bosun's chair

and up to about the second side of

spreaders I'll attach the straps that

will lift the mast

yeah

do you put two wraps up there's strop

around

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you just keep going

hey guys so as you can see we got the

mast down we used this crane and we got

it down yesterday and I just didn't have

a chance to record anything after

because the beers came out and we had

quite a big crew and that's just simply

because we have such a large mast this

is it here it's so heavy and so large

that there was virtually nowhere else to

move it without some kind of heavy

equipment everybody kind of grabbed a

piece and then we stuck these sawhorses

under it and we got it done this is

something that Noel and I aren't gonna

do very often I think it's certainly not

something we do every year what we did

was we took one of the halyards and we

ran it along here and just kind of did a

half hitch every on a know four to six

feet or so and that's simply just to

keep the the head stay like the furling

head stay and all the shrouds and

everything attached to the mast so they

don't go falling onto the pavement down

here and to keep the the roller further

from bending we're suppose to get some

rain so I covered some of these crucial

bits this radar dome is really old and

the seal in here looks dried out it

doesn't look so good so I wanted to

cover that with a bag down here on this

end we've got lots of lines on here

holding everything in the ends of all my

stays and their connection points all

held up really tight with these ropes to

keep them from flopping around and my

roller Furler down here also connected

the same way this is my spar tight joint

not all boats have this our boat has a

spar tight that secures the mast where

the deck and the masts meet this had to

be banged up with a hammer kind of just

to dislodge it and when we go back in

this wedge will again be banged back

down the one and only thing that went

wrong and it's really minor is that the

VHF cable when we were pulling out of

the boat the end of it had caught

somewhere inside and we didn't notice

and it just popped the land off the VHF

cable which is no big deal I'll just

splice it back on this huge mass and

this big operation and all those people

and the one and only thing that actually

went wrong was the smallest little

fixable we were very lucky it was a good

day but it was a lot of work we're gonna

make sure that when we put this back up

that everything is done

and is going to last for years hey guys

thanks for watching if you like ok hey

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you later thank you Charlie