Before The Mast

At 25 feet from step to mahogany masthead and I'm guessing about 70 lbs., the mast is too unwieldy for me to step by hand. As an experiment in handling the mast,  My wife Tammy and I stood the mast up on end out in the soft lawn - but then in my attempt to lower it back down, at about 45 degrees whilst I braced the mast about 10 feet up from the bottom and with arms fully extended over my head- gravity took over in earnest and the base of the mast kicked up and out and the masthead accelerated down hard striking the grass, as the mast whacked Tammy in the shoulder on its way down.  The Admiralty admonished me for my poor judgement and lack of balance and all thoughts of ever stepping the mast by hand, evaporated.

Forty-five years of paint and weather

I thought for a moment that I might get away with stepping the mast from the dock down to the boat, but the public boat ramp on our lake doesn't even have a dock, so I'd have to motor home to our dock to try and step the mast. Besides, who knows what I would encounter at the many other trailered destinations we planned to cruise from. Ultimately, one day, I would loose control of the mast an ultimately find myself and a badly damaged mast on the asphalt of a boat ramp. The solution is one that was common on many coastal boats in the prior two centuries - a tabernacle.  With only a fore-stay and a couple of halyards to contend with, the HA-18 is a relatively quick mast to rig without the need for shrouds, spreaders, back-stay, or head-sail.

A post on a catboat forum from author Rick Spilman led me to the blog of Miguel Angel San Miguel and his restoration of the HA-18 Platero. Thanks to both Rick's and Miguel's posts, I had some nice examples of successful DIY tabernacles.  Platero's Tabernacle  Peregrine

Upon removing the mast step from the bottom of the mast, there was a stinky wet piece of foam rubber wedged up inside with some 1/8" line tied around it. I pulled on the foam rubber and line and eventually removed 22 feet of line and foam rubber squares about every 3 feet.  I kept wondering what its purpose was - maybe to absorb condensation?  Then it dawned on me - to keep the wire that runs the length of the mast up to the anchor light from slapping inside the mast and to also deaden the potential sound of the halyards ringing at anchor. I've decided I'll try using the several diameters of pool noodles and pipe insulation available when I run the new wiring.  At a minimum they are closed cell foam and will potentially add enough flotation to help support the mast if it went overboard or if I ever experienced a knock-down.

I chose the material Rick Spilman recommended, a 4 foot length of structural schedule 40 T6061 aluminum pipe.

Over several weekends I stripped 45 years of paint off the entire mast, also enabling the pipe to sleeve over the lower 4 feet of  mast.

I attempted to remove the mahogany masthead, including trying to bang it out with 24 feet of 1 1/2" PVC pipe as a ramrod, but it didn't budge.  I'll have to refinish it in place.