Good Old Boat Issue 142: Jan/Feb 2022

Simple Solutions

Supporting Venture A clever design for storable mast supports makes for easy traveling between lakes. BY TOMALLEY

I have the great fortune to live next to an inland lake that is fully navigable, which means that I can go literally anywhere in the world frommy home port. But there’s one catch if I want to venture forth: I must unstep the mast so my 1965 Alberg 35, Tomfoolery , will fit under bridges and other structures in the New York Canal system. No big deal, right? Slap some 2 x 4s together to make mast crutches and off we go. And for a time, that’s what I did, and the supports worked great and were inexpensive to build. But they were bulky and difficult to store and transport. When we would travel to Lake Ontario and the Thousand Islands from the Finger Lakes, I would have to finesse them into my car to get them to the boat. Once on the boat they were fine, but when we would step the mast after leaving the canals, I had to store them ashore while we cruised the larger lake, and then fetch them again before our return trip in the canals. This meant we always had to return to the same spot to retrieve the supports. What would be ideal, I thought, would be a set of supports that could be folded up and stowed without taking up too much space. Being an engineer, I couldn’t resist the temptation to design something to meet these requirements. With spreaders, shrouds, running rigging, and other fixtures, my mast weighs about

assembly to the boat. It also allows the supports to be taken apart and stowed in a cockpit locker without consuming much volume. Both supports follow the same design; they consist of two vertical columns and a horizontal beam. The columns attach to feet that let the support stand securely. Two vertical chocks that fit into the horizontal beam provide a cradle for the mast and prevent it from rolling to one side or the other before everything is secured. The length of the horizontal beam is determined by the usable width of the deck where I planned to place the supports; for this calculation, I had to pay attention to the locations of cleats, vents, deck penetrations, and opening hatches. I made each column and beam of the supports by laminating three layers of 1 x 4 pine lumber (these can be joined with screws and/or glue). Then, I created mortise- and-tenon joints by leaving the center piece longer than the of the laminate; two 1 x 4s are strong enough to support Tom’s mast, so he cut out portions of the third, center piece to save lumber and weight. The gaps also provide a convenient place to pass through straps and lashings when tying down the mast, bottom left. Tomfoolery canal-side with her mast down and lashed to the supports, left. Disassembled, the mast supports are easy to bundle together and store aboard. Note the gaps cut out of the center pieces

300 pounds. I would only need two supports since the bow pulpit would hold the mast up forward. I developed a design that uses mortise-and-tenon

joinery and the weight of the mast to hold things together; it requires no mechanical fasteners, only some lines and tie-downs to secure the whole

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