Is that mast on jacks?

Sometimes we have to find creative solutions to solving problems. In this case our mast sits on our deck and inside there are wires that run through the deck to the inside of the boat. All fine and good until one day it started leaking and we had a waterfall inside our boat. So how do you lift a mast without a crane or two boats tied on each side to hoist it? Well, we decided to try to jack it up.

I built some supports and then tied the mast fore and aft at the base, just in case it tried to move. Then we took off the sails, boom, and anything that added weight to the mast. When we were ready, we loosened all the stays as much as possible, and we started jacking each jack (one on each side) slowly. After we raised it about 2-3 inches we could clean out the old sealant, then we blocked and moved each jack one at a time to clean each side and then reseal it with new sealant.



It seems to be keeping the water out so far. We're pretty excited that for about $25 bucks for the jacks we probably fixed the problem. Now we are cleaning up all the gear and repainting everything to protect it from oxidizing.