The Dixi Rollar mast raising,its a traditional thing!

Its done! thank you Steve and Renata for a very interesting afternoon,the glass of beer was nice too! all of what you see took less than an hour from start to finish,who needs a crane>


This was the view when we looked up and is what is holding the mast in place,later the dead eyes Steve hand made will be laced into position and the two lifting halyards will be released.


Its nearly there.


Still trying.


The three men trying very hard.


The three deck men getting to grips with the mast and the fact that the halyard lift was still a little short of what was needed,man power took over at this point,I would bet they are a little stiff today?


Steve doing a temporary tie off to the forestay.


Nearly vertical,man power takes over now as most the halyards lift has been done.


Check out the position of the blocks,in this case they would have worked better a half meter higher?


The three boats with Resound leaning over quite a bit.


Stepping back a little and next to the Dix designed Flying Cloud,it puts the lift into full perspective.


Going Up!


The starboard side boat,Resounds crew winching at the same time to keep the mast central.


The crew on the port side boat,thats Athol from yacht Perazim winching with Steves wife Renata tailing the winch just out of sight.


Lifting lines at the spreaders.


Spreaders and blocks,all hand made by Steve himself.


Feline help,its not even Dixi Rollars cat!


Harvey helping out,he is here from Tortola where his own boat is tied up ashore for the hurricane season,June to soon October its over?


Going up.


The mast head.


Steve,the master mind behind the whole opperation.


Resounds crew.


The block set up at Resounds mast head.


We are indeed fortunate to have a band of fellow HBYC members on our local marina,there are normally enough around to help with the odd job you need assitance with from time to time.In the past year there have been a number of masts raised in the traditional manner,Anna Woolfs and Nick Taylors come to mind.

In this case Renata and Steve were about to re step the solid wood mast on their boats deck,to do this is easy with a suitable crane but they cost money,so Steve organised a few friends,parked his steel self built Roberts Spray between two suitable yachts with large enough masts and set up the blocks and control lines to haul his mast to a vertical position,the pictures tell the story.