Hello i'm pretty new to this and just bought a P16. Today i attempted to raise the mast by myself and it was a mess. The boat is on the trailer and i have a small winch located on the front tonge of the trailer by the ball. I fed the webbing of the winch over the top of the mast stand and hooked it on the end of one of the trapeze wires with the mast connceted to the base by the ball it pivots on ...now when i started to crank the mast up it swung off the rear support stand and smacked into the house... Now oboviously i'm doing something wrong. Can anyone please let me know of an easier way of raising the mast, i plan to be going solo often thanks
I know that you should be pulling the mast up from the forestay and not the shrowds or trapeze wires. Hooking to one of these would make your mast swing to one side as you are pulling up. You then attach the trapeze wires to the crossbar to keep the mast from moving side to side. So to sumarize: the forestay for the up and down motion and the trapeze wires to prevent the side to side motion as the mast goes up (and down). Also, make sure there is a pin locking the mast in place at the base during this process otherwise the mast will pop right off as you start to raise it.
There are mast stepping devices that are available. Do a search on this website. I'm pretty sure they sell them here.
good luck
The best device I know of for raising a mast solo is one of those people who walk by watching you put the sailboat together. Smile at someone and ask them to give you a hand with the critical part. Most people seem happy to help.
In exchange for their help, be sure not to drop the mast on them.
Jonathan
one way to do it is to tie the trap wires to the outer end of the crossbars, connect the front stay to a stick to the base of the mast. (could use the hiking stick) and connect the winch line to the forestay (at the top of the stick) you may need to tie a line from each trap end to the top of the stick also to keep it from falling over.
The way I would do it on a H16 is I would put both side stays at the top of the chain plate. lower the front of the trailer to the ground then get on the tramp and toss it in place. let gravity hold it there while you attach the forestay. you can also use the wind (from behind the boat) to hold it up. But you must have good steady wind (that is why you are putting up the mast right). 