De-masting a 106ft mast...

Sunday, November 08, 2015

Satun, Thailand

De-masting a 106ft mast...

Now this was scary... because of the height of the mast and obviously the extra height being out on the hard stand, we needed not only one but two cranes which we had to get from Hat Yai which is around 100km away. On the way the guys had a bit of a break down so they didn't arrive in the yard until around 2pm but at this point we started anyway despite the remaining daylight. Being so close to the equator the sun goes down around 6:30pm which I do find hard, I always loved the long late sunsets at home in Scotland combined with the short days of winter but now it's similar hours all the time, up 6:30, down 6:30.

The whole yard was watching, helping, anticipating... the cranes got set up and stabilized and did a few test runs up and down preparing themselves to check heights etc. then it was time to start. The guys from the machine shop did a great job dismantling all the rigging so we could remove the
mast, and securing it to the mast itself.

Two local boys went up in the cage to tie the supports from the mast to the crane but the during the process I was holding my breath... once they were back down the process of edging the mast out went underway, keeping it stable and watching it ease out was a fascinating experience, I had never seen anything like it before. When the mast actually started to edge out through the deck I couldn't believe how stable and straight they managed to keep it.

They lifted it up and in towards the yard and managed to lay if safely with the aid of many hands on temporary supports, honestly they had to clear a huge space in the yard for us to achieve this. Once it was safely on the ground there was an all round sigh of relief. Wow... congratulations to everyone involved! By now it was now getting dark but we still had more work before night-time to take the spreaders off. The machine shop guys worked away into the night while everyone else headed home exhausted.

Next morning we got the cranes organized and prepared for another lift to the side of the shed and although this was a tight squeeze once again many hands helped and a great team. It was once again laid on supports while the cranes then changed positions to the shipyard next door to bring it behind the shed.

So third and final lift had the two cranes working together and again many men and thankfully she was safely laid her on her supports in her final position... phew... and breathe at last after a full day of moving her. The mast will need to be rewired, painted etc and will take a lot of work before she's ready to go back up but I was relieved to say the least that she's not secured in place

So we're off to a flying start on Aria, no doubt there will be a number of posts about her progress but we've a lot of work to do... From a whole repaint, new teak decks, new swim platform, new heads, new galley and new seating areas, this could take us a while!

So mast off we got moved into the shed in the shipyard to begin our tasks, the supports were taken out of the shed, Aria moved in then they re-built the shed round about her. So we've shelter from the sun and rain (it's still monsoon at the minute) and air con that can be plumbed in. That together with other contain, workroom areas we're now good to go.

Here's to the success of the project I can't wait to see the end result! This is a whole new part of the adventure and one thing's certain, it's going to be a real learning curve, I've learned so much already and enjoying every second...

I'll keep you posted on our progress ;)

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