Amigo by Franklin Paine, Brier, Washington
24 September 2009I think it has been more than fifteen years. There have been many stops and starts, some being years, but we finally made it.
This is Amigo.
I designed a mast raising jig patterned after Leonardo’s Pole Raising jig and I am able to raise the mast by myself. I am rather proud of this accomplishment as so many people told me it could not be done.
I can raise and lower the mast by myself and have done so in the water as well as shown in the testing on land. It is a simple tripod with a roller on top. The tripod is raised using a gin pole and then the third leg set in place. The mast rides up on the roller as the tripod is raised until it is at an angle of about 40 degrees. The butt of the mast rides on a small cart along a 2x4 from the transom to the partners. (The 2x4 is in two pieces so I can take it down, but I find I leave it, so I would make it a single piece.) A small block and tackle brings the butt of the mast to just even with the pin rail and the mast is almost vertical. The mast is held in the tripod by a wooden frame and adjustable rope harness. The butt is held on the cart by a strap that easily disconnects when the mast is almost vertical. I lift the butt of the mast with some straps that are fastened to the mast but I have a back up of a small block and tackle that prevents the mast from dropping through the partners too fast and also serves to lift the mast back into the tripod when taking it down. The entire rig is fastened to the cabin top and deck at four points with deck mount plates (two angled) and the 2x4 track mounts on a unit that fits into the rudder with a single bolt. The metal parts are 10’ chain link fence pieces with the eye ends set in wooden plugs I turned on the lathe. I epoxied all of the ends into the tubes and backed that up with screws. Two of the eye ends are drilled into the plugs at an angle (to match the angled deck plates) and the others are straight. I made the third leg of the tripod in two pieces with spring balls to lock the two pieces together. This is so that I don’t have to screw the eye ends into the deck plates once I begin raising the mast. All is done from a standing position right at the pin rail.