I realize this is a yearly chore in the East but here on the West Coast removing the mast is a first for me. The boat is a C&C 25 Mk1. I have the directions from the C&C owners manual (Thanks to Stu). Are there any peculiar pitfalls of which I should be aware before proceeding? Thanks for any assistance.
Tony Smith

Tony:
There's not a lot of rocket science in this project..........I assume that your mast is "deck stepped". ....correct????? Are you intending to have it pulled by a boat yard, or are you thinking of doing it yourself.........for the 25, you certainly could consider doing it yourself, with some guidance from this group. I'd be glad to discuss it with you offline if your interested........
Ron Casciato, C&C 38MKIIC.......

Tony:
I just unstepped the mast on my boat all it took was three able bodied people. I attached a halyard to the back stay after I loosened it completely off. Two of us were on the fore deck easing the mast down while the other person was in the cockpit lowering and easing out the sheet a little at a time. By the time the mast was 3/4 of the way down my helper on the foredeck went ashore to grab a hold of the end of the mast as it was lowered. We then proceeded to lift the mast out of the step on the deck. and ease it back to the cockpit to rest temporarily on the back rail and the bow pulpit.If you have any more questions feel free to ask me on or off the list.
jbognar@bigwave.ca
Joe Bognar C&C 24 In Luff Again Grimsby On.

Tony -
1. mark the shroud, forestay, and backstay turnbuckles with tape so that you know approximately where they were when you restep and retune (remember, you'll have to retune the rig, even with markings).
2. Assuming it's deck stepped, and you're doing it "by hand" (if it's keel stepped, you're pretty much going to have to use "a crane", either a real one or a cherry picker to lift it out straight up), then: you can lower it forward by using your boom as a "gin pole" so that the line used to control your forward descent is attached to the boom to which the main halyard attaches. If you simply run a line from the top of the mast to the ground, when the mast reaches a 45 deg angle you can't control the descent..crunch. Alternatively, you can drop it aft and use the spinnaker pole for this same function.
3. Don't drop it!
Good luck, Greg

Tony,
Just be sure you have a lot of help, especially the guy on the forestay. The mast is very heavy! When my marina unsteps the mast, it takes 4 guys, one on the forestay, one at the base plate and two at the stern.
Rick Ulmer 25 Mk I Slapshot

If your storing your boat on the hard for the off season, is it OK to leave the mast up when the boat is on jack stands or a cradle? I would assume the strong winter winds pushing on the rigging (with the boat not being able to heel) all winter long would not be a good thing. At our marina, about 1/3 of the boats remove their masts. I pulled mine this year (1976 C&C 33) by using a small hand operated crane / winch at the marina. The mast is really heavy. I just wondered if there are any down sides to leaving it up.
Thanks, Dennis

It was generally thought by C&C that leaving the rig in was bettter for the boat because you didn't stress and unstress it every year. It is certainly better from a wear and tear aspect on the rig & boat not to mention on the owner and crew. When I used to travel the country for C&C, the vast majority of areas (90% +) leave their masts up. When I saw a few areas that didn't there was usually a good reason - like they had a closed end travel lift. eg our marina in Iowa :( Of course, the rig should be removed every few years and thoroughly inspected for safety reasons.
Regards, Hank Evans

Dennis:
Jack stands are less stable than cradles. A boat in my club fell off its jack stands two years ago with the mast up. If you have a nice strong cradle, leaving the mast up is fine. However, if you have concerns about your cradle or are using jack stands, I'd take the mast down during the off season. Taking the mast down each season gives you an opportunity to do regular inspections. Also, some people in my club integrate the mast into a boat cover frame. (I store mine in the warm basement in case I want to do some work over the winter.)
Speaking of taking the mast down, if any of you C&C 34 owners decide to use Spartite, make sure you grease the partners real well. The partners on the 34 are irregularly shaped, and the cavity is relatively big. Accordingly, a new Spartite plug has a lot of surface area to hang on to. I thought I gooped the vaseline on pretty thick. Nonetheless, when I pulled the stick for the first time after making the plug, the mast did not want to come out. When it finally let go, the tension on the lift made the mast jump up about 10 inches. A little unnerving.
Matt Wolford

Dennis,
When I had my 34 I had to demast every year because my club didn't have a Travel Lift.We used the club's crane and seven of us would horse that long heavy mast down.It was not a job I looked forward to.Of course every spring we had to put it back up.
This year I had to demast my 37 to change my AWI cable and rewire everything else.This is not something I will do again in the near future.The crane operator told that this was one of the heaviest masts he had ever pulled.To make things even more interesting the mast sits through the end of the table in the main cabin with about 2 inches of clearance all around.In the end every thing went well but I gotta tell you my heart was pounding there for awhile.Add to all this the fact that they charged me $3.75 US per foot the length of my mast[56 feet] EACH way and you'll begin to understand why most people leave their masts up when they haulout.
Peter Kisilenko 1985 37k/cb "Fretless V" Marina Champlain, Lake Champlain

Out East (Shediac NB), we use a crane to remove the masts on the majority of boats. My previous boat, a C&C 25 MkII, had a hook shaped affair at the base of the mast that was supposed to form a hinge and allow you to lower and raise the mast yourself. When I bought the boat, I noticed that the hook had been welded at some point. Any thoughts I had about lowering the mast myself were tempered by that weld. I never attempted it myself although others in our marina have done it with similar sized boats. The new owner has since attempted the do-it-yourself lowering, broke the hook, had the mast come crashing down on his deck etc etc. My suggestion is to use a (mast) crane of some sort or be extremely cautious about lowering it yourself.
Carl

To everyone who is / has been pulling down the mast, I would suggest a crane, either fixed or call a local crane company who has a small truck mounted hydra-lift. It doesn't take too much of a crane for a small boat - I should think a 25 would be easier than the Mega, which my neighbour and I did a week ago using the fixed crane at our yacht club. 40 minutes, waiting for two boats ahead of me and another 20 under the crane. Toughest part is ensuring you don't bend the headfoil. It requires 2 persons to unstep, but three to put it back up.The Mega has quite a sturdy looking tabernackle, but I haven't tried that route. The larger boats hire a truck with a crane. I watched a Nonsuch pull their unstayed (heavy) mast out Friday, using maybe a 5 ton truck, and it was a non-event.
Saturday was haulout. Two big highway type cranes arrived, loaded their counterwights (35 tons) and began to pluck boats from the water, hoist them 75 feet into the air and swing them around and set them on their cradles. Picture a stork eating frogs and you get right perspective. Took about 10 minutes per boat and we worked from 0800-1800.
Jon Tebbens
'78 Mega 30

The 24 mast, If I'm not mistaken (the answer is in the specs on STU's photo site) is actually a couple of feet taller than on the 25 mk1. And my Mk1 has a mast step that projects into the casting at the bottom of the mast, and would not allow the mast to be pivoted back. It needed to be lifted (essentially vertically) about 6 inches to clear the mast step.
It took 4 men and a jib crane at the dock. Use the halyards for fore and aft stays, and slack off the forestay and backstay. Remove all the cotter pins from the upper and lower shrouds, and back off tension on the turnbuckles, but do not remove the toggle pins from the chainplates yet.
Put a bridle on the mast below the spreaders and tighten enough to support the mast but not tension the stays/shrouds. Now pull the pins on the forestay and shrouds, and I undid the turnbuckles on the backstay (because both the lower toggles were bent and needed replacing).
Release tension on the halyards (fore & aft) and unshackle them as you lift the mast about 6". (If you forget to unshackle, you might pull the halyard out of the mast when you swing it) Swing the foot forward as you lower the mast to horizontal, and set it on the dock. Two men can carry the assembly pretty easily.
When you put it back up, be sure to back way off on the turnbuckles on the shrouds. I didn't, and it got pretty hectic trying to hold the mast a vertical as possible, set it in place, and get enough slack in the shrouds to reinsert he toggle pins through the chainplates.
Rick Brass - la Belle Aurore - C&C 25 mk1 - Washington, NC
Where I no longer have to pull the stick or take the boat out of the water, except to repaint with ACP50 every two or three years.
Good Luck