How to Raise and Lower the Mast on a Foldable Trimaran
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- Опубліковано 3 лют 2022
- In this video we demonstrate how to raise / lower the mast on an F-82R trimaran.
Similar techniques would apply to any Corsair / Farrier design.
Sailing Photo Credit: Andrew Madding
Note that these sailing photos were taken before we implemented our latest shroud tensioning method.
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#howto #raise #lower #mast #farrier #corsair #trimaran #F-82R #F82R #sailing #howtosail #learntosail #sailingtips
Thank you for sharing, my wife and I are always learning something new. Sailing tip, If setting up a tent causes friction with your wife then imagine the tantrums when stepping the mast haha... Yes Beautiful boat!
LOL yes! I normally step the mast myself and she shows up after!
I experienced a rapid unplanned mast lowering from the cockpit once. I can confirm its fine as log as you are off-center! Beautiful boat BTW!
Thanks for the testimonial on cockpit survival rates!
Thanks. The Farr designs seem so well thought out, and the mast raising/lowering is no exception.
Can't see any reason to unrig anything either, especially if everything is covered under the tarp during storage and thereby protected from UV, etc.
Yes Farrier’s designs are very well thought out!
So nice. F31 owner. I prefer raising from the cockpit also. I leave my boat on the water year round. But raised it up by myself first time with no issues.
Yeah I'm a bit torn about leaving it in the water. It takes about 30 minutes longer to sail from the trailer than from a dock, but on the water you have to clean the bottom. Plus it's convenient to have it on the trailer at home for projects and repairs. It takes me about 30 minutes to drive to the dock, so just a single repair trip per sail outing makes up the difference for us.
Very useful video. Thank you!
Thanks - glad you liked it!
at 6:50 another good reason for using the boats own winches is that the boat remains secured to the trailer while you are precariously up on the thing, NO lifelines, and prone to falling, esp. if the boat gets bumped off the trailer!!, or off one of it's rollers. another is that the on-board winches are self-tailing, you can "block" the line off the drum, so if anything goes ary you can stop, and NOT lose any progress, as otherwise you will have to lower back down completely.
Excellent points - you can't really leave the trailer winch with the mast half way up to sort out something that has fouled!
We have a large shackle on a bow protector to secure the boat to the trailer, stand the mast then unfasten when we launch. I agree, be aware of load balance when unlocking the trailer winch or unhitching.
@@sailingmahina1 That’s a good approach - I had a friend whose boat slid off the trailer on the way down the ramp before reaching the water!
Thank you. This was helpful
Excellent!!!
Nice video! Thank you for sharing!
Thanks! I see you guys got an F-boat - congrats and welcome to the club! I have a whole playlist of Farrier / Corsair Tips and maybe you’ll find some of the other vids useful for your new boat as well! There’s also an active Farrier./ Corsair Trimaran Group which is very helpful (fct.groups.io/). Don’t hesitate to ask if you have any questions!
thank Gary , very well explain the way you set up, learning my lesson for my new project , a 24 or a 27 if I find one in a affordable price
Excellent - good luck with your search!!!
I'm an F-9A owner/builder launched in '93. Although I rarely raise/lower the mast, it is always done on the water since my local launch ramp is under a bridge. My set-up is very similar to yours using the cockpit winches and a block at the bow. Your mast sure looks lighter than my 40' aluminum one though so I use both the spin and jib halyards in tandem to opposite winches (that's probably overkill).
The F-9A is a great boat! We prefer to raise in the parking lot because then we can leave the crossbeams and gin pole on the truck, but do raise on the water about 20% of the time if the ramp is congested etc. We trailer to different ramps for various events so it's nice to have the flexibility. Our mast is aluminum and 38', so a slight turbo rig for this boat, and it's also pretty heavy. Sometimes I wish it were lighter, but I also appreciate never having to worry about it!
very nice arrengement thanks, i belive i will copy that smart solution
Glad you found it helpful - I’m continuing to tweak too!
Nice video Gary. Note the F27 mast rasing is quite different: non-roating rig that has permanent lower/intermediate shrouds + baby stay on the main hull, no temp supports needing during up/down, no gin pole needed (cross beam across top of akas instead, but amas must be folded). I also dry-sail, and have switched to a worm-drive trailer winch (will not free-wheel by design, and no brake pads to worry about), with a cordless drill with 5/8 socket to drive the winch quickly/effortlessly during mast up/down.
Thanks Greg! I'd love to see your system in action! That's an interesting idea to just use the forward beam cross member support, as it would save the step of installing the gin pole. Just may not be quite enough leverage for a longer or heavier mast. Or having a gin pole that attaches to the deck and just folds down between retrieval and next launch. Look forward to seeing you out there!
The beams on an F27 are much longer than on modern tris. That's probably why the older Ian Farrier designs used the cross bar for raising in stead.
@@sail4life Interesting point re: the longer beams on the F27! According to the sail plan the mast of the F27 is also about 3' / 1m shorter than the F-82R which would make it a bit easier to raise with a smaller lever.
Have you ever tried this on an F-31R? I caught a near fatal issue with it trailer winch last weekend and we rigged a similar system to lower the mast. The loads seemed pretty high but it worked really well. It actually seemed much better for control and visibility not to mention safety.
Haven’t tried it on an F-31R but our mast is only a tiny bit shorter and aluminum, whereby the F-31R typically has a carbon mast so may not be too much different in weight. And as you probably saw in the FCT Forums other F-31/F-9 owners do use this technique. I prefer the cockpit winch method because 1) you can raise the mast either on the trailer or on the water depending on the prevailing conditions at the ramp and 2) you have much better visibility of things e.g. lines that might get fouled and 3) you can guide the mast back onto the roller as you lower it. It does seem more dangerous being so close to underneath the mast, but you are actually off to the side, and despite seemingly high loads they are still well below the breaking strength of properly sized gear.
We have 24 ft. Tremolino trimaran
Just bought her last summer. She goes back in Apr. Work on the hard for now.
Never sailed on one but that's a really cool looking boat!
Many great ideas like cross beams...
Can you give specs on the gin pole like material diameter, thickness, length...Thanks
Sure, gin pole is about 8.5’ long, 1.66” diameter, 0.15” wall thickness. Sorry I don’t know what units you prefer!
Thanks Gary. I’ll be watching this a few more times as I’ve never raised my mast. I’m going to look at incorporating the cross beams for the mast and tent support great idea. The F9A raising system is slightly different but I can imagine it all working as you demonstrate.
You didn’t show the raising wire (dyneema)terminations on the mast and deck. Do you have triangles on the deck and how do you terminate the ends?
Hi Garth, the best shot of the deck mounted "mast raising stay bracket" is probably around 2:10-2:15 in the video, but it's not a great shot - try pausing the video for a better look. It's basically just an aluminum fitting bolted to the deck, with an eye in line with the mast pivot point. There's a standard stainless shackle through that, and the Dyneema mast raising wires and gin pole supports (not shown in that shot) are attached to the shackle with a trucker hitch. The jib and spinnaker halyards are also attached to the same shackle as backups. I'll try to get you some better pictures...
Yes centering the mast is key. I had some issues with my F22. I still have to perfect the system. I bought the boat with a selfmade system and i think i didnt get the idea very well. I think now i have a better idea of the centering mechanics. Cheers from Belgium.
@@NICOLAS25478 Yes it definitely takes some work to refine the system. Our system is also custom made. It’s really important that the mast and gin pole stay cantered through the lift and aren’t able to twist to one side, and that all the pivots are aligned to maintain constant tension throughout the lift. So far the mast raising wires and halyard backup on the mast, plus the smaller Dyneema stays on the gin pole have been very reliable. We had some scary moments early on before we got to this point but learned from them.
Many brilliant ideas here. Who made the mast pivot / hinge ?
Glad you liked the video! The mast pivot hinge components were initially manufactured by the previous owner and I’ve done some tweaking and refining.
great video. I have watched this a few times to learn the details as I am about to purchase an 82R. Given the usual trailering situation with a 82R is to support the mast at the pushpit and the rear support why do you need the rear crossbeam at all? and why do you have your prodder hinged up to support the mast ? Is it just redundancy for road trailering??
The aft support is mostly to transfer the weight of the mast off the roller for trailering because I was concerned that leaving it there while the trailer bounces down the road places undue forces on the aft section of the hull e.g. where the trailer bunks end. In other words I wanted to transfer the weight of the mast as directly to the trailer as possible without stressing the boat. Also the folded prodder doesn't support the mast in any way, it's just lashed to the mast so it doesn't fall down. There's definitely more than one way to do this!
Very nice set up! Are you using the original bolts from beams to attach your cross member? I don't see them in the video. The reason i ask is I built a similar setup for winter storage, but I pulled the bolts from the beams because I needed longer bolts to hold the crossmember. Pulling the cotter pins out of the F24 beam bolts was a huge pain because they were wedged in super tight breaking on me. Now the new ones that i purchase to replace the old ones keep falling out or break from usage.
Yes I’m thankfully able to use the exact same bolts for the cross member as I do for sailing, so no need to swap them out. I use stainless wing nuts back sides of the crossmember. But if your sailing bolts are too short, could you not drill and tap a new hole in the crossmember to thread the sailing bolts directly into that, without requiring them to go all the way through?
Great system! I'm looking to improve the setup/process on my F9A and wondering if you custom fabricated the crossbeams or if they were ordered? Also, is your bowsprit supporting the mast as well or just the crossbeams and aft roller?
Glad you like it! The crossbeams were custom fabricated. The mast rests on the two crossbeams and the aft roller, and the bowsprit is simply lashed to the mast to keep it in place while trailering. Let me know if you have any other questions!
@@SailingTipsCa I'm going to copy you on the synthetic shrouds at the amas - how much of your rigging is synthetic vs wire rope? Also, do you plan to replace more of the stainless with synthetic in the future?
@@vonderlust We currently have synthetic main shrouds and a stainless wire forestay because the jib hanks slide better on stainless, it chafes less, plus the stainless wire is thinner so more aerodynamically efficient. Given all this the current plan is to keep the synthetic main shrouds and wire forestay. I’ve sailed on a few boats with synthetic forestays and hank on jibs don’t drop as nicely but it’s really a minor issue.
Great video! What would you suggest for a C-31 with forestay/furled jib? It makes the mast much heavier and tend to twist when horizontal with that additional weight on top.
Do you mean when you're trying to roll it fore and aft - the weight of the forestay/furler pulls it over?
@@SailingTipsCa Yes, it is a big bundle to lash to the mast all the way up and especially with a Tides track makes it side-to-side top heavy.
@@brucewacker2471 I wonder if a nice deep carpeted bunk on the forward crossbeam might help? I cut my bunks out of 2x8 dimensional lumber and the base sandwiches the crossbeam. The mast cutout profile is about 4”/10cm deep and matches the mast perfectly which keeps the mast from falling over, so I can let go completely and it just stays put. And maybe make some kind of hooks that loop under the diamond wires, over the mast, and hold the forestay/furler. Anybody else out there with a C-31-sized boat have any suggestions?
@@SailingTipsCa Good ideas. I'd also probably have to remake the aft roller to match the new mast profile and make room for the spreaders to roll past.
Thanks great job ,I noticed you have halyards coming aft to the cockpit with a rotating mast and they are outside the mast at the base a couple of questions how much rotation does that give you and I'd assume the halyard exit the mast through slots if so how far up from the base is that ...cheers
Thanks - good eye!!! The halyards exit the mast about 1m/3' up from the base, and then go to clutches on the mast about 20cm/8" below that. From there they go through turning blocks at the base of the mast, then through deck organizers, and back to the cockpit. But with the clutches on the mast, there is generally only tension below that and adjacent to the rotation point when hoisting sails or tensioning halyards with the cockpit winches. During normal sailing the halyards are slack adjacent to the rotation point so the mast is free to rotate up to 90' or full rotation. The one exception to this is the spinnaker halyard, where we also have a clutch on the cabin top. But that's to facilitate dousing, so just before dousing we transfer the load from the mast clutch to the cabin top clutch, but at that point the mast is already rotated where we want it, and again that's a temporary situation. Hope this makes sense!
@@SailingTipsCa yes well explained and thank you, I'm building a trimaran atm so I'm really looking at details
@@adrianbaker9804 Good luck and kudos - it’s a lot of hard work!!!
assuming you meant F-28R trimaran vs. F-82R trimaran in your description
It’s definitely an F-82R which is an 8.2 metre 26.9’ plan-built trimaran which is similar to the F-25C. The F-28R is a production boat built by Corsair and is both longer and heavier but with less floatation.
What is the weight of your mast?
Is there a lot of tension in the raising line, ie does the winching take much effort.
I have a Woods Gypsy catamaran, mast 10.5m, 18x12cm section aluminium. I am wondering if I can make a similar system.
I previously had a Hirondelle she had a 30’ mast of lighter section. Very easy to lower and manoeuvre
(ps, only just a bit jealous of your speed machine)
My mast is 11.6m, 21x10cm aluminum, 2.3mm wall thickness. It's from an old D-class catamaran and pretty beefy. I don't have an accurate weight but I'm estimating about 70kg. The gin pole is about 3m long. There's a decent amount of tension on the raising line, but still not to difficult to raise with a Harken 40 cabin-top winch in low gear, I can turn the handle with one hand. I switch to high gear about 2/3 the way up. Let me know if you have any other questions!!!
I am trying to adapt a similar system to my Super Tramp. The gin pole process does not work in an open cockpit with the mast step on the floor. In my case, the gin pole would need to attach to mast 3 feet above the mast step. The geometry might work, but I worry about breaking the mast at the pressure point. Any suggestions?
I think breaking the mast is a valid concern given the geometry you describe! However it might still work if you attached the gin pole to a strong pivot point on the cockpit coaming forward of the mast, as long as it’s structurally sound enough to take the compression. I would size the gin pole to be about the same as the J dimension, or from that point to the forestay attachment. Ideally you would also attach lateral guys on adjacent pivots outboard on the coaming to keep the pole on centreline as it rotates. Does this make sense?
@@SailingTipsCa Having used the gin pole technique successfully on deck stepped monohulls, the lateral guy lines make very good sense, especially if in the same plane as the the mast step pivot point. A mast going sideways is never good. However in my Super Tramp's open cockpit/floor stepped mast, the coaming area would not be supportive. That does open my thinking though, in that I may be able to use the given infrastructure, the folded front beams to act as the base for a crane like attachment point for an extension high enough to get past that initial horizontal moment I call 'no man's land', when still less than 45 degrees. Trying to keep it simple, especially for time and storage of extra equipment is a factor as well.
Is the front of the mast supported as well as the two cradles and roller
No the mast is 38' long and the forward section of the mast is cantilevered about 11' in front of the forward beam, but this is also the strongest part of the mast having the diamond wires and all. The beam cradles are about 12' apart, and the roller is about 6' aft of the beam, which leaves about 9' of the lightest part of the mast cantilevered off the back. It's a fairly robust aluminium wing section and no problems with this setup to date.
Hi everyone,
If in raising the mast starts to lean to the side, how do you adjust the tension on the side lines holding the gin pole? Or if you raise in a parking lot that is not perfectly level?
Thank you!
In addition to the mast raising wires, we use a jib halyard on one side and spin halyard on the other side for extra adjustable support, both attached to the pivot point. I like to raise the mast a foot off the roller, see which side it tends to swing to, then tighten the halyard on the opposite side. Does this help?
@@SailingTipsCa yes thank you much!
Can you still splice the main brace
I don’t quite understand the question - can you elaborate?
Have you ever motored with your mast down?
Yes we’ve motored from the ramp to nearby docks and back with the boat folded and the mast down. We only do that in settled weather without much sea state e.g. waves smaller than 18”.
@@SailingTipsCa I'm obsessed with completing The Great Loop. I think a trimaran like the Corsair 880 would be a versatile boat to navigate the 6000 mile circumnavigation. Any thoughts?
@@The442nd The Corsair 880 has a CE Rating of B for use up to 200NM from shore, so I think it should be just fine for The Great Loop (assuming this is what you mean en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Loop) as long as you watch your weather windows for the coastal legs. I understand the bridges on this route should be 55’ or higher, so the 880 should fit with the mast up (edit: at least for the ICW component).
@@SailingTipsCa Yes sir! aside from the cost, one of my wife's objections is the price and smell of fuel. I intend to win her over with an electric outboard and solar panels. I know we'll be moving at a snail's pace, but that's fine with us. 20 to 35 miles a day would be ideal.
Thank you for responding
@@The442nd That sounds like an adventure! Maybe you can charge along the way too. I have an electric car which I love but don’t have much experience with electric outboards. What I do know is that those with integral batteries have limited range, so it’s probably best to get something with larger separate batteries in the hull for the 880.