Any tips for stepping a Nacra F18 would be greatly appreciated.

Begin with platform on ground/sand without any rudders, daggerboards, tiller, blocks, etc., so the tramp is relatively clean. Set the mast so the foot is forward, spreaders rest on front beam and the top portion of the mast is resting on the rear beam (I use my mast cradle). Hook up the sidestays and trapeze wires to the hounds, then attach the sidestays to the hulls. At this point, I tuck the forestay into the bottom of the diamond wires so I can find it when the mast is raised. Set the spinnaker pole between the bows with the aft end between the main beam and the dolphin stiker on the side where the retrieval line goes. Thread the retrieval line from the back of the spinnaker bag and route it appropriately until it goes through the mast system and then tie it off to the Port spinnaker block. The mast should be ready to hoist, but double check that everything is routed appropriately.

Raising the mast: Get crew to pick up head of mast and you pick up the foot. Walk mast back until foot is at mast ball. Rotate mast 90 degrees so that spreaders go more toward vertical rather than horizontal. This wuill allow you to put mast base on mast ball. Secure with mast pin going through mast base and under mast ball (captive mast step). Crew will have to raise the head of the mast significantly to be able to mount mast base onto mast ball. Now get onto trampoline and lift mast to vertical position. Crew will need to come to front of boat, capture forestay (was trapped in diamond wire) and attach to bridle chainplate with pin. Using trapeze wires and crew, rig tension can be set.

I hope this is helpful.

Thank you Sparky.

Does anyone have any tips for making the "raising of the mast" portion easier. 30ft of aluminum is quite awkward.

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F18 - 9 Lives

If you leave the boat strapped to the trailer, you can use the winch that most of us have mounted on the front trailer mast support. After the spinnaker halyard is rigged and the wires all connected, I hook the winch to a trapeze line and have someone start to crank in the winch while I support the mast on the trailer...it's still a good idea to give some upward push - especially when the mast is down low and the angle to the winch is shallow...but it helps to take a lot of the effort out of the heave-ho. BE SURE to leave the boat strapped firmly to the trailer.

Alternatively, someone can stand on the front beam holding two trapeze lines and lean back to help take some of the load off the person pushing the mast. This is a little risky and shouldn't be done on the trailer (so they don't have far to fall if a slip is made).

Pretty much as Sparky does.
Make sure that you get your back foot on the rear beam for the initial lift, this should not be too much of a struggle if the crew has lifted above head-height on the ground.
I always rig the pole and attach the spinny halyard to the end of the pole, when the crew has had the mast lifted out of their hands, he/she can come to the side of the boat and 'hoist' the spinny halyard to keep the mast going in the right direction. Once the mast is up, the halyard can be tied off after cleating [for security]. This means that you do not have to fumble with pins and rings on the forestay whilst holding the mast up.
Always remember to slacken off one of the shouds right to the top to give enough slack to easily connect the forestay.

Using the spinny halyard like this, and finding something like a trailer mast support to prop the mast up on, means that it is not very difficult to raise the mast on your own when you feel like you need to prove a point!

Paul GBR7

All:

Thanks for the advice. The mast was an absolute breeze today with the use of the "trailer winch attached to the trapeze."

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F18 - 9 Lives

This weekend I built a gin pole and bi pod to raise/lower the ARC21 mast.