I had to lower the mizzen this time was because of an oversight when I rebuilt the mizzen mast in January of 2009. When we first raised the mizzen mast in February of this year, we noticed that the port Southwest Wind Power wind turbine was turning much more slowly than the starboard turbine. This condition seemed to persist. I decided that, when we haul out DREAM AWAY, I will remove the port turbine and determine the problem.

During the haulout, we did attempt to remove the turbine, but there was a huge problem ... not enough slack wire. I could not believe I had not left enough loose wire when the turbine was originally mounted. The turbines have a wire pigtail of about 10" out the bottom of the turbine. These wires are connected to the wires that go to the battery. In my case, these wires are connected with bolts and nuts, and then very heavenly insulated. To be able to remove the turbine, it must be lifted off of the mount and enough of the wire pulled out of the mount to cut off the insulation, and disconnect the wires from each other. Because the wires were so tight, we were not able to get to the wire connection, and remove the turbine.

The good news was that it seemed the original problem with the wind turbine had disappeared with usage, but I still needed to add more wire in the mount before we left to go cruising. This necessitated taking the mizzen mast down again, repairing the problem, and raising the mast, yet again. With good planning and great help from friends, we were able to accomplish the task in one day.

Taking the mast down is pretty much the reverse of what we did in raising the mast in February of this year. You could go to the raising the mizzen link and start at the end and read to the beginning! In case that seems like a lot of work, I will go over the lowering project in this section.

Good news! I finally got some pictures of lowering the mizzen mast. As you will see from the pictures, we had plenty of help with the project. I was able to convince Kitty, the Admiral, to be the official photographer, that is why we have so many good pictures. I would just like to mention the other folks involved in the mast lowering: main mast-base crew, Stan and Steve; mizzen mast-base crew, Captain Jim, Alan, and another Steve; port control line, Troy; center control line, Raymond; and starboard control lines, Kat and Trey. Deana, general troubleshooter.

Since the mizzen mast is deck stepped on deck, it is rather easy to raise or lower the mizzen mast when the main mast up. Six people are all that are required, but eight are even better. The offer of beer and snacks is usually a good way to retain the required personnel. As you will see from the pictures, we had a very large cast of folks, so it went very well.

To start with, it is a good idea to have something on the back of the boat on which to lay the mast on, once it has been lowered. I used two saw horses. Next, get all of the electrical wiring disconnected. I have all of the mast wires running from the bottom of the mast, through a fitting at the base of the mast, and into a through-hull fitting, into the boat. The wires are terminated at two terminal boards, so it is very easy to disconnect all of the wires and pull them out of the boat. I secured all of the wires at the base of the mast.

Now, get all of the running rigging onto the base of the mast, and secured. I got lucky on next part. Friend Robert, who is light and agile, was helping, so he went up the mizzen mast to secure the control lines. For control lines, I attached the main halyard to a line at the top of the mizzen mast. Two of your six helpers should be on the main halyard, standing at the base of the main mast. One of them is to operate the winch, and the other person does the tailing. This is the control line that is actually used to lower the mizzen mast in a controlled fashion. Since I had extra people, I had Robert tie three lines at the top of the mizzen mast at the same attachment point as the line to the main halyard. One of the lines went to port side, and the second one went to the starboard side, with one person on each line. These lines are used to keep the mast from going side-to-side as it is being lowered. The third line stays in the center, and is a safety line in case the mast should go forward after the shrouds have been disconnected. The last control line is tied onto the base of the mast, and then it is tied off to the after cleats on each side of the boat. This is to keep the mast from shooting forward if the base of the mizzen mast should come off of the mast step.

Before we get any further into the actual mast raising or lowering, it is a good time to have a meeting. The purpose of the meeting is to let all the helpers know what their general responsibilities are, and who is in charge. Only one person needs to be giving orders during the critical part of the raising or lowering the mast. It also helps to explain the process so everyone knows the general action plan.

Now that everyone knows what is happening, we have one more item before we actually lower the mast. Everyone on control lines takes up the tension, and the team at the base of the mizzen mast disconnects all of the standing rigging, which should have been loosened previously. All of the standing rigging is brought into the base of the mizzen mast, and securely tied off.

Now we can actually lower the mast. The person on the center control line on the dock starts pulling the mast back as the main mast base team starts letting out on the main halyard. The starboard and port control line team keep the mast centered as it comes down, and the mizzen mast-base team keep the base of the mizzen mast locked on the step. Once we start the lowering process, it takes only two to three minutes before the mast is horizontal.

Once the mast was horizontal, we removed the mizzen mast-base control line, and the main halyard from the top of the mizzen mast, and so that we could move the mast to the saw horses. When this was done, it only took me a couple of hours to repair the wind turbine wiring problem, and then we put the mizzen mast back up.

Piece of cake!!