Air draft/draught mast down?

Does anyone know the air draft/draught with the mast lowered without a tabernacle? Can't find it anywhere and would really like to know. Cheers

You're right! Airdraft is not recorded anywhere on the site.

I think that's because for most people it's not relevant. A lot only sail at sea, where it's only what's under the boat that you need to worry about.

I don't know anywhere with a bridge lower than Potter Heigham's which people sail under on a regular basis. Potter's bridge has around double the clearance needed for a SeaHawk so, again, airdraft without a mast erected is not an issue.



I guess more people would be wondering if a SeaHawk would fit under their car port, but that's more dependent on their trailer.

Thanks Greg sorry I forgot to be a bit more specific I mean without a tabernacle fitted as this makes it much higher i would like to know since my seahawk is based within Norwich and I'd like to know when I can do without removing the mast from the mast step to leave norwich and get under the railway bridge

I can’t give you an exact height but I can tell you that if you just fold it and leave it bolted at the base, then (a) if you drive it around like that you are likely to break the base, and (b) when I folded mine down, I still wasn’t able to reach it standing on the roof of an SUV… so my hand was at least 13ft high. In fact I tried to grab a rope off the top block with a fender pole which was another 6ft long and still couldn’t reach…. So Seahawk on a trailer is probably still close to 20ft high.

If you unbolt the mast and just lash it to the pulpit and stern, the. The whole thing is probably about 8-10ft high max. Including trailer.

Hope that helps

Thanks alot that helps, just its very difficult to bolt it in on my own

Get two long pieces of wood, thick enough not to break (eg 19mm x 57mm) and bolt them together about 3/4 to 7/8 the way up… they will make a sort of asymmetric X.

Then jam the bottom of the wood in the corners of the cockpit by the drain plugs and lower the mast into the X at the top.

That allows you to take it down in a controlled way.

Putting it back up is the reverse, but lash the mast to the X, but with a slip knot so you can undo the lashing once it’s bolted in.

I’ve dealt with the same and it is possible without risking breaking things.

Ahh thank you ive done a lower one ate the stern of the boat will definitely consider adding another

Now I've realised what you meant I've done a bit of work!

I've taken the "tall rig" image from the site, laid a second copy over it, swung it round so the mast lies from mast step to cabin door way and check where it would lay. It suggests that to clear any bridge you would need it to be the length of the boom above the water line:



However, I reckon the actual height needed is highly variable. With four good sized crew aboard, a heavy outboard over the stern and with a fully laden spare fuel tank stowed near the transom, you might drop that by as much as 18inches to 2feet! This photo suggests there's the potential to get the mast near the horizontal!

Ahh thanks for the work Greg that actually helps so the air draft seems around 9'3" which will be handy to know means I could approach the bridge and judge before totally removing the mast, and thanks Perry for your input i won't store the mast in the step and down.