It’s an oldie but goodie folk song I was singing in grade school. I love the Kingston Trio version best, it’s pumped. I never dreamed I’d be living out that folk tune. And frankly our crew has sung it so much that it’s stuck in my head every time we go under a bridge. It’s enough to drive you crazy. But in practical terms that low bridge is 15ft off the water. It really is a low bridge, even for power boaters. But for us we had to pull the mast and strap it on deck. Our mast is 52 feet long and the boat is 42 feet giving us ar 10 feet of overhang; a ramming rod of sorts. It’s shameful to do this to a proud sailboat but if we are to sail the great lakes it must be done.
A marina was suggested in the tour book for pulling the mast that was said to be very competent; Hop-O-Nose. I called before we left and liked that they seemed pretty casual and let you do as much of the work as you were willing to do. But I struggled with the name Hop-O-Nose. The sign says it all about this place, they aren’t charging $12/ft/night like Manhattan and it’s living proof that boating has fully transitioned to the uber rich. As it turns out, a Hop-O-Nose was a phonetic spelling of an Indian tribe who live there.
The first step to pulling the mast for transit is fabricating a stand to hold it. This I did in a day using scrap lumber lying around the yard and a circular saw I borrowed from the marina (It was a small Ryobi, I loved it). I was very nervous about the base moving so I built a pretty substantial foundation at each end and then use trucking straps to the post vertically.
With stands in place it was time to pull the stick and rotate it horizontally. We had some pretty good winds at this point and moving the boat to the crane area was an ordeal. The wind caught the bow and whipped the bow around very quickly, it was not a pretty docking. But the yard wasn’t phased and because of their confidence neither was I. That was until they lifted the mast out of its base and a big gust of wind started moving it uncontrolled. One burly brute of a guy grabbed onto with all his might and muscled it back under control but we were lucky. Unnerving really and in hindsight they shouldn’t have tried pulling the mast in those winds. But it transitioned safely to its cradle about 12 ft off the water for those low bridges.
With the mast down, we lost our VHF radio antenna, anchor light, wind instruments, flag pole, and of course the ability to sail. It is also very awkward to work around and the boat really doesn’t look handsome. I look forward to getting it back together again.
A marina was suggested in the tour book for pulling the mast that was said to be very competent; Hop-O-Nose. I called before we left and liked that they seemed pretty casual and let you do as much of the work as you were willing to do. But I struggled with the name Hop-O-Nose. The sign says it all about this place, they aren’t charging $12/ft/night like Manhattan and it’s living proof that boating has fully transitioned to the uber rich. As it turns out, a Hop-O-Nose was a phonetic spelling of an Indian tribe who live there.
The first step to pulling the mast for transit is fabricating a stand to hold it. This I did in a day using scrap lumber lying around the yard and a circular saw I borrowed from the marina (It was a small Ryobi, I loved it). I was very nervous about the base moving so I built a pretty substantial foundation at each end and then use trucking straps to the post vertically.
With stands in place it was time to pull the stick and rotate it horizontally. We had some pretty good winds at this point and moving the boat to the crane area was an ordeal. The wind caught the bow and whipped the bow around very quickly, it was not a pretty docking. But the yard wasn’t phased and because of their confidence neither was I. That was until they lifted the mast out of its base and a big gust of wind started moving it uncontrolled. One burly brute of a guy grabbed onto with all his might and muscled it back under control but we were lucky. Unnerving really and in hindsight they shouldn’t have tried pulling the mast in those winds. But it transitioned safely to its cradle about 12 ft off the water for those low bridges.
With the mast down, we lost our VHF radio antenna, anchor light, wind instruments, flag pole, and of course the ability to sail. It is also very awkward to work around and the boat really doesn’t look handsome. I look forward to getting it back together again.
my only comment is: check out Springsteen's version of the Erie canal song ..... and ... I still can't get that tune out of my head!
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