A long time ago, I skippered a yacht—about 7 meters long—during a group student cruise involving several similarly sized yachts sailing from Gdańsk to the Vistula Lagoon (and back). We were navigating across the Vistula Delta, passing under small bridge spanning the canal.

The cruise commander (Zbigniew Szpetulski) taught us a technique for raising and lowering the mast from the bridge itself: people standing on the bridge would use lines to pull the mast out of its step and lower it onto the deck; then, after passing under the bridge, they would use the lines to lift it back up and seat it in the step. 

There were plenty of us young guys, so we managed the crossing for each yacht in turn. 

Anonymous wrote:

Hi Andrew,

the most obvious idea would be to set up a simple A-Frame with two long poles. 

Thanks Paul. I've used an A frame many times as a pivot to pull the mast up on its base but I've never used one as a lift.

I guess that means I have to rig up something around 5m long, as the mast will be 10m. I suppose I might get away with 4.8m lengths of timber as the mast will be much heavier in its lower half.

I have been toying with some sort of telescopic arrangement but without trying it I have no idea if it would work.

I've touched on this before but it's a very big factor in my conversion plans.

I'm on a really tight budget and planning on winter storage in Looe boatyard, however this means unstepping the mast as there's a bridge in the way!

It will mean unstepping the mast on the water, or at least tied up at a pontoon, before motoring around to the boatyard.

Any ideas how to make stepping and unstepping very easy. I do have a sturdy tabernacle which I can move to the new mast position. The mast is likely to be a series of decreasing aluminium tubes. I can probably enlist another willing pair of hands.

Thanks.