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Members' Online Book: Maintaining a Cruising Boat, Chapter 12 of 29

9 Tips To Make Unstepping Your Mast Easier

John Published Dec 6, 2014 11 comments Updated February 12, 2019

Having suggested, in my usual oh so low key and gentle way, that it would be a good idea to unstep your mast when laying up your boat, I’m thinking that the very least I can do as a follow-up is share some of the things I have learned while unstepping a 75′ mast some 15 times over the last 23 years.

I’m going to start with tips to help you select a yard to unstep your mast and then move on to stuff that will make things run smoothly on the big day.

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Meet the Author

John

John was born and brought up in Bermuda and started sailing as a child, racing locally and offshore before turning to cruising. He has sailed over 100,000 miles, most of it on his McCurdy & Rhodes 56, Morgan's Cloud, including eight ocean races to Bermuda, culminating in winning his class twice in the Newport Bermuda Race. He has skippered a series of voyages in the North Atlantic, the majority of which have been to the high latitudes. John has been helping others go voyaging by sharing his experience for twenty years, first in yachting magazines and, for the last 12 years, as co-editor/publisher of AAC.

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Nothing on this website or in direct communications received from us, or in our articles in the media, should be construed to mean or imply that offshore voyaging is anything other than potentially hazardous. Dangers such as, but not limited to, extreme weather, cold, ice, lack of help or assistance, gear failure, grounding, and falling overboard could injure or kill you and wreck your boat.

Decisions such as, but not limited to, heading offshore, where you go, and how you equip your boat, are yours and yours alone. The information on this web site is based on what has worked for the authors in the past, but that does not mean it will work for you, or that it is the best, or even a good way for you to do things.