We don’t travel much with our boats, and I assume nearly all yacht clubs would have more experience packing, trailering, and moving a whole fleet of them. But we found there are two parts you should never travel without:
- 16 – Mast Foot Pivot Pin
- 15 – Matching grub nut
When we went sailing with the Sea Scouts a few years ago, we spent a week camping on remote locations, which required us to get the boat to the Gippsland Lakes first.
We don’t have a road trailer, the original dolly is no longer available, and we needed to figure out how to do it.
But Albert Park Yacht Club lent us a generic boat road trailer – and really, any generic trailer of roughly the right size will probably work. It would be nice if there were some pre-fab foam or other padding pieces for the mast to keep things organised when they are placed in the hull for transit (but we don’t think there are any so far, so a set of beach towels had to do).
In the absence of a slip and being unable to do it on the water, it took three people to lift the de-rigged hull onto the trailer, but we rigged it on the road trailer and then slipped it in with a ramp without any dramas, as with any other bigger boat.
Then, midweek, after literally being off the grid, we learned about the importance of Parts 15 and 16.
The grub nut came loose, the mast foot pin wobbled free and plopped out mid-sail (the mast will stay up supported by the stays and rigging – at least for a bit – but the mast may twist itself out of the foot if you can’t make it to shore in time).
It was pure luck that we found the tiny grub nut again—not finding both would have completely disabled the whole boat. Maybe you could live without the grub nut (if you have at least some duck tape ready to go).
Since we always have a spare set at hand. In fact, we have one in the bag and a second one in the car.
In addition, once the mast is stemmed, we tape the nut in place with electrical tape around the mast foot. This will keep the nut in place even if the grub nut comes loose again and prevent it from wobbling free again. (This may be a bit harder to do with the Foredeck mounted, but we will try that another time.)
