The Resourceful Sailor: Unstepping a Small Boat’s Mast With a Bigger Boat’s Yard

I have sailed with Bertram on Murrelet a few times. When he asked if I would assist him in trailering the boat, of course I agreed. He explained he would be unstepping the mast in the morning using the schooner Alcyone’s yard. I thought, “That is classic Resourceful Sailor fodder.” and excitedly asked if I could film it. Bertram agreed. Sugar Flanagan, Alcyone’s co-owner, and Erik Brown, co-proprietor of Port Townsend’s Left Coast Charters (and Sugar’s son-in-law), also graciously agreed.

When you’re small, it pays to have big friends. In this case, big is Alcyone, a 65-ft-on-deck, wood-hulled, gaff-rigged schooner built in 1956 by Frank Prothero on Lake Union in Seattle and now moored in Port Townsend, WA. The small is Murrelet, a 19-ft modified Augie Nielsen Spitzgatter-design sloop. Built by Bertram Levy in Port Townsend from a toppled neighborhood locust tree (and milled by a local sawyer), Murrelet was launched in 2019. Trailerable, she was due for her yearly haulout and needed her mast removed for transport. Bertram, at 84 and with a lifetime of maritime resourcefulness, has a boat shop at his house, where Murrelet and several others have been built. She and her mast were headed back home for their yearly varnish refresh. Sugar offered to help unstep Murrelet’s mast using Alcyone’s foremast yard.

Bertram tells the story of his father teaching him to varnish. His watchful eye always found the drips and holidays, and Bertram would be instructed to make it right. He mastered it. He says varnishing is Zen for him. To hear him describe his meticulous and methodical approach to dipping the brush, allowing the excess to drip off, three strokes per brush side, the wet edges, the feathering, the tipping, the repeating, it’s easy to believe. So it is not particularly out of place that Murrelet has more than her fair share of varnish, including her topsides and mast. Every year, this varnish needs one to two coats to battle the effects of ultraviolet radiation. According to Bertram, even then it will require a complete re-do every 10 years. Bertram’s daughter, Madeline, will inherit Murrelet. He’s taught her how to varnish.

Murrelet cozied up next to Alcyone on the misty morning of June 5, rafting up amidships, while Sugar and Erik prepped and secured Alcyone’s foremast yard. Murrelet’s rigging was unpinned and strapped to her keel-stepped mast. The lifting line was led from Alcyone’s deck up to a single block on the yard above — which protruded outboard over the mast — and back down, and tied with a bowline around Murrelet’s spar. This loop would slide up the mast to near the base of the jumper stays. A subtle, clever trick incorporated another line acting as a choker from below. A round turn and a bowline around the outside of the lifting line’s mast loop allowed for cinching it around the mast to help it bind in the right spot. Many masts have spreaders that act as good lifting and balance points. Murrelet’s does not.

Then it came down to heaving on the line. Murrelet’s mast is maybe 100 pounds. Sugar didn’t feel the need to gain purchase with extra block and tackle, though the mast wanted to stick in its base. Swelling, if wood, or corrosion, if metal, is not uncommon. A little rocking of the boat eased it out. The mast needed to be raised only a few feet to clear Murrelet’s deck. The base was moved forward while the top of the mast was angled and finessed through Alcyone’s rigging and lowered to her deck.

A vertical spar rigged on a sailboat is tidy and majestic. That same spar horizontal on a 65-ft schooner? Cumbersome. I put my cameras away and gave the extra needed hands to move the mast around and through the schooner’s maze of rigging, tenders, stove pipes, and housetops, down the dock, and onto Bertram’s classic rack-topped mid-’80s Toyota pickup.

Salty sailors, riggers, and boatbuilders know how to be resourceful. Unstepping Murrelet’s mast was simple, relaxed, and efficient from beginning to end. Sugar and Erik had good rapport, confidence, and experience, while Bertram mostly waited on standby. He has his work cut out with some 240-grit sandpaper and a can of Epifanes, but he gets to do it out of his shop at home. And lest we forget, it’s Zen for him. No lift or yard charges, and with the help of some bigger friends, no crane fees. Though, in true resourceful-sailor fashion, Bertram also has a special tripod to step and unstep Murrelet’s mast in the marina parking lot. With experience, a spring in your step, and good connections, you get to mix it up for fun.

Check out this video of the entire process.

Remember, keep your solutions safe and prudent, and have a blast.