( This is a "repackaged" version of a very old web site I did about
some projects to my old Santana 2023C sailboat)

Mast Crutches  

 

 

As I mentioned elsewhere, I do a lot of trailering, so I spent a little extra time making sure that the mast was a) easy to stow, and b) secure when stowed.

 

I also wanted to reduce the time needed for all off the tying down, chafe protecting, etc. required every time out. I now have 3 mast supports when trailering: a bow crutch (more of a cradle), a maststep crutch and an aft crutch.

 

 

The bow crutch is made from a semicircular piece of 5/4 treated decking lumber with pieces glued and screwed on the bottom to match the bow pulpit rail.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A "U" shaped piece is screwed to the top with some carpeting inside. This requires one bungee cord which holds both the mast and the cradle down on the bow pulpit.

 

One tricky part of the bow crutch was cutting the notch for the vertical bow pulpit pipe. This now helps to keep the whole thing centered, though.

 

 

The mast step crutch is made from two 2x4s glued and nailed together. It is in the form of an "L" shape at the bottom so that I could lock it into the step the same way the mast does. It locks with two SS eye bolts (conviently there for the bungee cord later) sliding into the forward, horizontal slots in the mast step, and a single bolt fitting into one of the vertical slots at the aft portion of the mast step.

As you can see here, the "V" is offset slightly because the aft crutch does not sit at the center of the transom. Again, this uses only one bungee.

 

 

 

 

 

The aft mast crutch is the same as the original one, but I added a poly-something keel roller to it using a bicycle wheel axle and some metal brackets. This helps during single handed rigging to roll the mast back before raising it.

 

I use some ratcheting tie-downs (the black blocks with striped lines) to stabilize the crutch. The tie downs just hook into the lifeline terminations at the stern corner pulpits.

 

Again a single bungee (hefty, though) to hold everything down. There is an eyebolt on the back of the wood block where the bungee hooks in.