Forestay, jib and lowering the mast

I was talking to a fellow from a local sailing club about .... sailing. He happened to ask about power lines near the launch with respect to raising the mast and the advantage of the composite mast tip.

I have read about this before as the top (9' ?) on newer boats (1985 and newer anyway) all have this fiberglass mast end to provide insulation from electrical currents in the event that a mast touches hydro lines. It turns out there are lines across the channel far enough up that I can't just get closer to the water before raising the mast.

I went down to the locks to cross and walk up to see what I may be dealing with for line clearance and I ran into the lockmaster. He confirmed that the lines that run down our road (high voltage, not just small feeder lines) do cross overhead... but had no idea how high. He did mention that a particular boat had no trouble. That boat, a large double decker, happened to be sitting in the basin in town the next day so I got a loser look. It is very high with fairly tall antennae. Having said that it must clear under the Rideau Ferry bridge which means it is somewhat less than 26'.

Inconclusive.

Just because the clearance is not listed on the navigation site doesn't mean it is any higher than that either.

So, IF these lines are a hazard I will be replacing the end of the mast.

Now, the owner of the boat says there is a slight bend in the mast, not enough to make it not sailable. I was considering a few options depending on the shape of the mast.

1) slight bend might be fixable if not creased, load in the opposite direction
2) comptip retrofit if the bend is far enough up
3) replace with a used mast, might be hard to come across a used one though
4) replace with a new one... at the price of the masts finding a different boat would be cheaper

Finding a post '85 with the comptip already in place would be cheaper than replacing the mast after the fact, just need to have more patience. I will wait to see the boat, likely this weekend, before coming to any conclusions.

None of this makes much difference on the fact that the boat will not fit under the bridge so I was considering putting a small block (2:1 perhaps) on the forestay with a cleat on the mast for the halyard. This would allow tensioning the mast without worrying about the bridle adjuster as well as letting me lower the mast head to provide the clearance needed to get under the bridge.

So, loosen the stay, lower a few degrees, tie it off, paddle or troll through, yank it back up and tie it off.

I find out that this is called an Aussie halyard, usually for the jib sail but also used for the forestay. I also think that this would be a huge help in raising the mast solo. Lift and walk it up to a point, then grab the halyard and pull it up the rest fo the way.

Back to work for a bit now.

Jeff.