MASTSTEPPING: Lifting and Rigging The Mast on Catalina 25 ||E48

[@WindwardToEden]

What's your favorite way (or the best way you've found) to step and rig your mast? Let us know in the comments below!

[@SQRL_GHOUL]

Things are looking great!

[@WindwardToEden]

Getting there!

[@shawnl6959]

Stepping the mast is always an adventure. You handled your first time well. The more you do it, the better at it you'll get.

[@WindwardToEden]

Thank you! Hopefully will be better next year.

[@SailingCoffeecup]

"Just real quick"... Nothing is real quick when it comes to sailboats, or sailing. 🤣🤣 Glad to see you got it put it back together. Next year, you'll be a pro at rigging. And, don't be cheap. You owe that guy a case. 🤣🤣 but...she looks good in the water.

[@WindwardToEden]

Yea, I think I have her down now…have had nothing but problems this year. Already bought his beer!

[@SailingYachtSaltyLass]

A sailboat never looks right without its mast

[@WindwardToEden]

No, to me they always look like some kind of modified cigarette boat…

[@sonofneptunesailing917]

That is a good way to step a mast. Stepping a mast always seems to turn into a complicated mess.... It happens! I am pretty sure you could step your mast without a lift truck! It involves an 'A' frame attached to the chain plates and a line from the bow to the 'A' frame and then to a halyard. The method you used is likely easier...

[@WindwardToEden]

I would like to get an a frame, just in case…

[@markwatkins3255]

You are getting there. It does take time to learn all the ins and outs with a boat (any boat), but just keep working at it. I do recommend that you pick up a copy of "The Annapolis Book of Seamanship" it has a lot of very useful information related to sailing and rigging as well as other related information....something to do during the winter months as you are planning for the next years sail. Enjoy that boat with those kids

[@WindwardToEden]

Thanks! I will pick up a copy… winter is coming😣

[@markchristie4231]

Always step the mast from the bow;1 attatch the forward pin in the tabernacle then attach all your stays loosely except the aft stay, attatch the boom and topping lift, this is your gin pole. Now simply attach the main sheet, send a wog forward to keep things from wobbling, then start pulling in the main sheet, once it’s up and looking majestic hook up the back stay then the second tabernacle pin. Send the wog to borrow someone’s loos gauge and tighten everything up ! That crow’s not on your arm for nuthin!

[@WindwardToEden]

Nice, thank you!!!!!

[@climbingwithoutpassion2343]

I do it on land, on the trailer.

[@chicanopatriot4322]

Ok I've seen at least 3 videos of cat25's with owners complaining about a leak in in the rear birth ,under the cockpit. Right where that kid landed! Mystery solved.and good to know...since I've been eyeballing these boats lately.

[@WindwardToEden]

These are great old boats. Great at nothing, good at everything, and rides the lake like a tank. Personally, I love it!

[@robo11735]

Bad idea that luckily didn't end in disaster. There are marks here for ingenuity, but there where many opportunites for disaster, including death. Local boat yards charge $$ to do this job, and for that price, no one gets hurt, and nothing gets broken. Many sailors step their own masts, but they know the process and are not figuring it out on the fly.

[@marklapierre5629]

Only one smll issue with your technique. You should have used a safety harness while you were up on that pallet lift.

[@SailingFanatic]

Agreed