I have a 1972 Columbia MK II sailboat. I will be hauling it ou to repaint the bottom. Any advise on unstepping the mast? The mast to deck join looks like one piece, how does the mast fit to the deck?
My '71 Columbia MkII mast is stepped on a plate on the deck. It's supported underneath by that big piece of teak next to the head. I have to unstep the mast every fall and step it every spring on Lake Champlain. Chipman Point Marina has a little crane that lifts and supports the mast while I connect or disconnect the shrouds and stays. Work with esperience mast steppers and everything works out fine.
Question? Does the mast seat into a fitting that is inside the base of the mast?
When you lift the mast off of the topside,is there a footing the mast sits into?
The mast fits over a raised deck fitting. All you have to do is remove the shrouds and stays and lift the mast straight up a couple of inches and its off. the trick is to make sure that you have a some way of steadying the mast, a boat yard crane or I made a "A" frame out of 2x4's that I steady with ropes it is high enough to go above the spreaders. I use that to pull the mast up. I had a hard time the first time I took the mast down because the bottom of the mast and the deck fitting had corroded together but after about 20 minutes of pulling and tapping a cursing it came up. You also need to remember to disconnect the wires that run up the mast I only have two for the mast light and they were just twisted together with some electrical tape around them. Don't know if they are all like that but I think that I will change that before I put the boat back in the water. I also put some tape on the threads of the turn buckles so that when I put them back on I have a good idea of how far to tighten them.
