by GreenLake » Wed Apr 29, 2009 1:27 pm
Other ideas...
Any spar/pole will do as a lever - you just have to jury-rig some stays to firmly hold it in place. A boom should be fine, a 2x4 or 4x4 at least 8ft long above the deck should work. Assuming suitable shackles to the chainplates, and some suitable attachment point at the top of the pole, you could use the ratcheting kind of tie-downs (ribbon). If you don't already have enough of them to trailer your boat, they're cheap, and easy to tension (don't tension too much).
If your mast is deck-stepped, you also have to anchor the pole on the mast foot. For keel stepped mast, your pole doesn't have to be keel-stepped, if you can anchor it atop the opening in the deck (and support the deck from below with e.g. some lumber. Where the pole rests, you'll have mostly compression loads, so fixing the foot of the pole should not be so challenging - especially if the jury stays attach to the top of the pole)
Roger reports that he pulls with 25lbs force or less on a 20ft lever (DS Mast) to careen his DS. For a 10ft lever, the force would double, but still something that could be managed.
~ green ~ lake ~ ~