New Orleans-SeaBrook Stepping Mast

Well what an exhausting day…But Beauty once again is back into shape and looking like a sailboat! We woke up around 4 a.m. and started to prepare for the day. It’s amazing all the prep work that has to be done. I received a call from Aaron one of the service managers here to move the boat around to the canal. Of course Bryce had taken a walk over to the gas pumps to see if they were open. I started the engines and disconnected the electrical cord. I was preparing to leave. Finally out of no where I see Mr. smiles (Bryce) walking up to the boat. The gas docks are open we can get a pump-out and top off the diesel. Cool lets get moving.

It has been 4 weeks since our last pump-out. This is one time I am glad we had two heads. At 22 gallons a piece I now know we can last a month on 44 gallons. We still have some maintenance to do on her so we will be here a while. Yesterday, I also did 4 loads of laundry. I think it’s getting time to do some fun stuff.

I was so excited to see the palm trees That is a sign I am in the South

Here is one of the last views of Beauty with her mast down.

This is Bryan; he is the expert putting Beauty back together again.

This is Steve another boater we connected with. Steve picked his boat up and is heading back home to Tennessee with her.

Bryan is on the lift to remove the Windex and wind speed off the mast. Bryce had shimmed out on the mast yesterday to put all the stuff on her.LOL

On your mark get set; get ready; go….Bryan is putting the hook on her.

Scary at first. It’s hard to believe one strap and hook can lift this heavy mast.

Bryce and I helped with stepping the mast. We just did what Bryan told us to do. If we can be useful, we just like to help with our own boat.

Bryan and Bryce are guiding her down into her spot.

The final part of using this lift. Bryan went up to reconnect our Wind speed and Windex.

After Bryan tuned the rig, Bryce and I replaced the boom, vang and put the sails on. Look she looks like a sailboat again.

Bryce has had a lot of questions about the jet-ski lift. Just a few stats.. Bryce designed and built the lift out of aluminum/bronze and stainless steel. Since it is mostly aluminum, it weights about 150 pounds. It operates with two hydraulic cylinders (black) shown in the picture below. A small 12 volt hydraulic power unit pushes the lift up or down. Two buttons on a hand held unit cause it to go up or down. It easily lifts the 400 pound Sea-doo Spark. I named the jet-ski “Patch”. The build and a drawing are located earlier in the blog.