BYYB Forums

I have an interest in building the vacationer, and while reading I came across somebody mentioning a fold down mast. Does anyone have further info on how this is done?

Lee First let me say Welcome aboard. I like the tabernacle for a fold down mast. This consist of a colar around the mast with 3 pins through the sides and mast. First you are going to saw the mast into up above deck high enough when you fold it down it will clear the cabin. The collar is made with 1/4" plate welded into a coller to fit around the 4X4 mast. the frount plate is 4" x8" the sides are 4" X16" and the back is 4" 12". The holes for the pens are drilled in the side plates stump hole 2' up from the bottom,the pin hole is 10" from the bottom the hinge hole is 14" from the bottom. these numbers are off the top of my head but this will give you an idea. I am sure you will get better instructions and pictures in the next couple of days but this will give you something to chew on. Bud

Welcome, Lee (recent member myself),
First off, I'm blown away by the amount of info in these pages and these people regarding these great little boats. I'm sure someone else will post with even more info than my experience can provide.
In regards to your folding mast question, the Vac plans show a heavy duty gate hinge serving as the mast hinge. The hinge is an obvious necessity in a trailer sailer.These boats are designed in part to keep building costs down, so there seems to be a lot of widely available hardware used. It avoids the old saying about how a piece of hardware costs twice as much if you call it "marine"!!

Welcome lee.
I think I may try building my mast like Craig Gleason did his, he pretty much eliminated all that hardware, Here's a link to his page concerning his mast hinge...

http://members.cox.net/bb343/Tabpagea.htm

Brian.