Posted: 19 Jul 2008 at 8:04pm
Hello All,

I ran into a fellow Dolphin owner at the marina who shared his mast raising experience with me. While winching it up, the mast fell sideways bending the mast plate and slamming down on the deck. Since I am about to raise mine he suggested I loosen the turnbuckles on two of the stays, connect them, and prevent the mast from falling sideways, although he hasn't tried this himself. I thought it might be better to connect a heavy duty rubber bungee cord to the port and starboard stays to prevent sideways shift, and allow for stretching, then connect the stays after the mast is up. Any advice on mast raising would be appreciated! Greg
Hull #85


Posted: 21 Jul 2008 at 6:47am
Hi Greg
This subject will make for an interesting addition to the Technical Section of the website and I have been accumulating stuff to do just that - soon, I hope. So far, it seems that a good stiff drink to celebrate a successful raising is well deserved!
Ron Breault


Posted: 10 Aug 2008 at 7:27pm
Hi Greg,
I'm new to the site. I remedied mast raising on my Pacific Dolphin by utilizing the same system I had on a Nor'Sea 27. It basically calls for attaching the forestay, forward and upper stays before raising, using the mainsheet and topping lift as your backstay, raising the mast by winching in the mainsheet. The critical part is securing a line from each side of the boom end to a chain plate ( axis point) to prevent the "sideways" motion you described. I have attached a couple of Nor'sea sites that describe the process for raising / lowering the mast in detail. I raise the mast on the Dolphin single handed. I'm not saying I don't sweat, but it's a pretty straight forward process that takes about an hour and a half on a calm day.

I plan to photograph the whole show on the next trip up or down.
I hope this helpful.
Jim

http://www.norseayachts.com/download/n27mastlowering.PDF

http://members.tripod.com/~norsea27/nl11.pdf

http://www.vander-bend.com/norsea/rigging.html

http://www.enezacko.com/page/1422839

J.Robinson
Aguila
Pacific Dolphin #273