Single handed mast raising for Hobie 18 using power winch

Bruce the wings in the pictures above are magnum wings the sx wings are longer go all the way to rear of boat , past rear crossbar, where did you find you r wings
Ted

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Hobie 21se
feral cat

This following picture provides some insight into the forces at work during mast raising using the Mast Stepper II style. Note this mast pole has been modified so that the block is about 34" above the front cross bar of the H16.

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ScotsSailor
1986 Hobie 16

Sorry to see that. Hope no one was hurt and your mast was not damaged. I have a vertical C channel iron welded to the front of the base plate (about 4" forward of the main post) and the other end welded to the main post of the stepper.

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1984 Hobie 18

No one hurt. Just posted to put folks on notice. Buddy of mine is a welder/metal worker. He has it now and is planning to cut the torn end off and have it slide into a larger gauge piece that will form the lower three to four feet. That should do the trick.

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ScotsSailor
1986 Hobie 16

It looks to me like you need a gusset or a tension cable to help with the moment load on the long pole. If you just beef up the bottom you may put a bend in the trailer tongue.

Perhaps, and neither the trailer tongue nor the mast pole are heavy duty, except I have this mounted on the tongue next to a thick reinforcing bar.. My buddy went ahead and did a fix. Said to try it and if the mast pole bends he will fix me up with a heavier gauge steel. Here is what we did.





I figure I will give it a go and keep an eye on the mast pole. By the way, the block is about 35" above the level of the front cross bar. This causes the mast to ride at 10.5', at the tip. I may attach a lower cradle for it.


What is a tension cable? I guess a gusset is just reinforcing bar on the mast pole, but I don't know what a tension cable is, or how it would help reduce the stress on the mast pole. Please elaborate.

Thanks.

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ScotsSailor
1986 Hobie 16

The problem you have is you have a super long cantilever arm here. All the bending moment is concentrated directly on the weld at the base plate. Extending your mast stand to extreme height and putting the pulley all the way at the top means there is a ton of leverage trying to break the weld at the bottom of the mast stand. Granted, your welder did a good job of beefing this up, but I would add a support brace to make the thing bomb-proof.

Run a brace that connects to the mast stand just below the winch down to your trailer tongue tube just in front of where the A-frame of the trailer is welded to the trailer tongue tube. The brace will take all this bending moment and turn it into compression load. I'd use two pieces of 1" x 1" x 1/8" angle stock sandwiched on either side of the mast stand and tongue tube. Thru-bolt the whole thing using 5/16" hex bolts, one through the mast stand and one through the tongue. The thing will never budge again.

sm

A tension cable (or rope) would be like a shroud from the top of the pole to the trailer tongue area to handle the bending moment on the long mast raising pole. That way the force tries to stretch the cable instead of bending the pole over at the base. The strut mentioned above would do the same thing but in compression instead of tension. Either would work.

Perhaps this is a band-aid approach, but it will get me on the water for now, hopefully.

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ScotsSailor
1986 Hobie 16

I may try tying the strap closer to the stepper say around trailer jack and tongue. This may give less of a moment of force on your tongue. When you step the mast be sure to have someone "start" it for you by raising it up as high as they can while on the ground or standing on the rear of the trailer. This will get much less stress off the stepper.

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1984 Hobie 18

I think the strap setup looks like a good solution. I wouldn't move it any closer to the mast stand. Just make sure you keep the strap good and tight, and I imagine you won't have anymore issues.

sm

Quick question utilizing a remote utility winch from Harbor Freight. Could you wire the winch to pull power through the trailer light plug off of your tow vehicle, or is their too much draw for the wiring?

I would think that would be way too much draw for normal trailer wiring. Normally these winches (even small ones) have significant amperage draw and need large wires from the battery. Some vehicles with tow packages have some larger wires set up for charging a battery on a camper etc but they normally are not connected at either end.

That answer in all cases using the arrangement in this thread depends on how high the pulley on the gin pole is relative to the mast pivot point... and whether or not you can add additional purchase between the mast tang on top of your gin pole.

In other words, you can raise your mast with one hand and hold a beer with the other, if physics is working with you rather than against you.

Check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ca_n9F7pwuY#t=5m45s

I think if you tried to run an electric winch from your trailer light wiring, you'd blow the fuse everytime any significant load was put on the winch. Additionally, electric current only flows to the trailer harness when the lights are on, so you'd have to turn on your head lights or throw a cinder block on the brake pedal everytime you wanted to run the winch (which would add even more current draw).

Wire it separately.

sm