I acquired my Mac 19 without the mast raising system apart from the bottle shaped bracket that attaches to the Tabernacle. This weekend I procured a 6ft aluminium pole, fixed it to the bracket, mounted a pulley at the other end and using the trailer winch proceeded to raise the mast using the jib sheet. I think in theory it should have worked, however it swayed from port to starboard so much that I had a hell of a job trying to keep it square. :o Surely I must be doing something wrong as I can't see this being a one man job. When the mast starts to lean over, there is no way that the tabernacle is going to keep it square, no matter how tight it is. Can anyone advise me how this is meant to work please? :?
Thank you.
Mon, 05/07/2010 - 10:06am
#1
Mast raising system
You have worked out a great system, there is just one thing missing, as yu have found out, well, two to be precise. On the factory supplied M raising system, they supply two short lengths of wire which fit about 6' up the mast to a purpose fitted D ring, boted through the mast, and the ends of these two baby stays are attached to a small loop on the foot of the stanchions, just in front of the mast base on either side. These then stop the mast swaying [toppling!] to one side or the other.
When measuring, they have to be reasonably tight from mast down, all the way through the process to mast up, for obvious reasons.
Best of luck. :D
Paul
[Ex 'Crackerjack' - 26M]
Thanks Paul,
Since posting this query I discovered on macgregorsailors.com quite a bit of previous correspondence on the subject. I'll give it a go and see how I get on.
Thanks for the reply.
Eamonn.