[Rhodes22-list] mast raising procedures

[Slim]

Peter,

The forward lowers should have the 8" extensions added and then connected to
their chain plates.  These help to prevent side sway in the mast as it's
going up (or down)  As the mast gets higher, the upper shrouds take over to
prevent the sway.  Both uppers and forward lowers combine to prevent the
sway.  That leaves the aft lowers available to hook up to the crane.

I can see where your method (using the forward lowers to the crane) would
certainly save some time, but it's not as safe.  I usually do this procedure
on the water, so any waves or rocking the boat would cause the mast to sway
from side to side, so I need to use the four shrouds to prevent that.

Hope this helps,

Slim

On 6/10/05 4:37 PM, "Peter Thorn" <pthorn at nc.rr.com> wrote:

> Slim and Bill,
> 
> Thanks for posting the mast procedures again.  Now that I've tried it a few
> times, it makes a lot more sense and the reading is certainly a little more
> interesting.  However I was surprised to read the part about connecting the
> *aft* lowers to the mast crane.
> 
> Raven doesn't seem to be set up that way.  On Raven, the forward lowers have
> fast-pins and all the other turnbuckles are fixed with ring-dings.  So, I
> connected the forward lowers to the crane and everything worked just fine -
> it's actually less work than you both describe.  The fast-pins speed the
> connection from the crane hoist to the chainplates a little bit too.  When I
> checked the rig tension with the Loos gauge everything was within specs,
> except the forward lowers needed a little tightening as one might expect.
> 
> I know I'm pretty lucky that Mark and the other previous owners took such
> thought and care in setting up Raven quite nicely.  But I still wonder if I'm
> missing something:  why do the instructions call for connecting the *aft*
> lowers to the crane?  To paraphrase Rumsfeld "I don't know what I don't know".
> Does it make a difference which lowers you use?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> PT
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