I have a spacesailor 24 and I need to do repair on my spreader light. Any tips on dropping the mast?

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Calypso223 said..
I have a spacesailor 24 and I need to do repair on my spreader light. Any tips on dropping the mast?

any trees close by or a bridge you could use

I have used a pole mounted a couple of meters off the deck 90 degrees off the mast and used a winch dropping it aft and using the rigging each side to stabilize the mast as it comes down also you will need to keep the mast base in position as long as you can. Years ago I did my back in and still wanted to sail my A class cat doing the above did the trick I think from memory the folding trimarans that was the way they lowered there masts ready to trailer back home.
Cant for the life of me think of the designers Name right now
just thought of it Farrier trimarans had a mast lowering concepts that I borrowed
I did some thing ,like this below

basically I used the farrier idea and made a X two pieces of wood with a bolt through them high enough to catch the mast about 15 foot up from ground level on the way down that was the hard part when lowering the last 15 foot because of the mast angle as it came down

Your mast is less than 10m, wouldn't it be easier to get up to the light rather than dropping the mast? You're only going up to the spreaders.

If you really need to drop it do you have the fractional mast? What style is the mast foot? Is there a locking pin fore or aft of the actual mast?

I drop my similarly sized mast all the time BUT it has a locking pin. I can do it singlehandedly by using removable baby stays and a higher point than the bow to tie the spinnaker halyard to. I can drop/raise it just by catching it and having a 2nd controlling the descent/ascent with the spinnaker halyard.

If it was just to get to the spreaders though I would use a Bosuns chair or an extendable ladder and a 2nd with a halyard round me, just in case.

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Calypso223 said..
I have a spacesailor 24 and I need to do repair on my spreader light. Any tips on dropping the mast?

To get to the spreader on a Spacesailor 24 I would just use an aluminium ladder. Rope strop at the top to secure and brace the bottom.

To lower I have used the method shown in the second of HG02's videos. Mine was a 26 foot yacht and I did it by myself easily. Just make sure the frame is about 2 feet above the spreader so the loop can slide up under the spreader and have enough height so the mast base clears the deck. You will be surprised how light the mast is and easily managed.

Thanks for the info and the video