Removing the Mast – Marathon, Florida, USA, March 17, 2025

Replacing the rigging was more of a process than we expected.  The first trick was Anthony’s dock was down an extremely narrow canal.  It was roughly 4 feet wider than our boat with other boats lining both sides.  This means only two feet on each side and if you screw up, we take out someone else’s boat.  Yikes!  Then the real kicker was you would have to do this all while backing the boat through the canal and into the slip.  Yeah, not a chance.  Anthony had a captain who does this for him each time and the boat here before us as a 44 foot which is wider than we are.  This means it’s possible, but Ron was willing to let the other captain do this one since he has done it many times.

Ron and I had spent the time to prep the boat and disconnect all the wiring in the mast and remove the head sail.  The next step was to remove the boom and main sail which Anthony, Ron and his guys did since it is too heavy for Ron and I to do ourselves.  This leads us to the fun part.  Anthony must remove the mast based on how our rigging is laid out.  Apparently, the spreaders where the diamonds come together often corrode and are impossible to remove while the mast is upright. We played it safe and just pulled the mast which was the safer option. So, he brought in a crane and after about an hour, it came down. 

It was a bit nerve wrecking to watch the mast get removed, but it was clear this was not his first rodeo, and it was without incident.  What we found was unfortunate.  In addition to the cracked swages (which we knew about), the radar cable was in very poor condition, and much of the rest of the rigging was also in poor condition.  This made us feel better about making the decision to replace everything.  Unfortunately, the prior owners did nothing to maintain this boat including the rigging, which is why it should not have needed this now, but this is our reality.  I am glad we negotiated this into the purchase price.  In addition, the bonus of allowing us to do the solar install and arch at a reasonable price makes this all worthwhile.  This is the final project we have to do and still hope to be able to jump to the Bahamas in the next week or two.