home

M

ost masts come to Oriental in the full, upright position on their boats. A few, though, arrive on the horizontal.

That was the case Saturday when Ross Otterbacher took delivery of two masts for the Formosa 41 ketch he’s been working on.

With a little help from his friends, Ross Otterbacher (3rd from right) brings a mast to his workshop, a move that involved crossing Broad Street..

Getting the masts — a main and a mizzen — to Oriental from Florida was a task for Triton’s. The next trick was to get the heavy cargo off of the Triton’s truck and in to Ross’s workshop on Broad Street.

Enter: a dozen friends.

They gathered Saturday afternoon to bring the masts in to the waiting sawhorses. It was no easy task. Ross estimates that the main mast, with its rigging weighed in at 1,600 pounds, while the mizzen was approximately 800.

Two masts were delivered.. but first, two that had been in the workshop, had to be removed..

By the time Triton’s Ralf Heit drove up with the two masts, the mast-moving crew was rather practiced, having earlier moved a main mast and a mizzen from the workshop to make way for the new ones. (Ross was replacing the older masts because a lawnmower hit them, sending one crashing to the concrete ground; the resulting fracture — seemingly small — was not something he wanted to think about in a gale, so he searched for and then found the masts which arrived Saturday.)

Ross Otterbacher and the masts that came with the boat…before a dozen folks moved them out of the workshop to make room for the new ones.

More photos follow:

[page]

First, the task of moving the masts Ross already had:

A coordinated effort of going out the back door of the workshop.

One down… .

The second old mast. A few steps forward.. and then….

Laying down second old mast.

Jimmy Z and the masts.

[page]

Then, bringing the new ones in. First, the main…

Triton’s delivered the masts to North Street… across Broad from the waiting bay of the workshop.

Ralf Heit of Triton’s Yacht Service, who put in a few thousand miles of travel delivering boats and masts in recent days.

Ross Otterbacher and Ken Brandon assess the situation of how to remove the masts from the truck.

Dennis Minor shifts the mast on to his shoulder and leads the way.

One mast and 28 feet cross Broad Street to the mast’s new home.

..a few steps beyond… .

… and one mast is delivered.

[page]

Then, the mizzen which had to go in just so. That led to a pivot action in the middle of Broad Street.

Dennis Minor again leads the way, this time with the mizzen mast.

[page]

Masts in place.

The feet of mast-mover, Charlie “Ten Toes” Garret.

Harry Fluharty carries some of the smaller pieces to the workshop.

Now, the job of prepping the mast begins….

Ultimate destination for the masts: the deck of Ross’s sailboat.

..and the mizzen in the area now covered by a tent.

Posted Tuesday August 18, 2009 by Melinda Penkava