8M Folding/Unfolding and mast raising

[commodore]

Ooops! Made a mistake. Pat Ross had posted a topic in Trailers about folding the ama's and raising the mast on an 8M, and I attempted to move it to this forum where it now belongs. Move worked OK and I left a shadow of it in the old forum, but then I thought I'd erase the shadow. Seems to have erased his original that was sitting here. Pat - sorry, could you add the name and issue of the magazine you were looking for.

[Pat Ross]

Sure Ron, I will be glad to restate the issue:

My wife and i recently purchased a 1981 8M, hull number 253. Inside the boat was a very deteriorated article on setting up a rig to raise and lower the amas and mast. I had origianlly asked if anyone had a copy of the article printed in the March/April edition of Multihulls Magazine, not takers at the time. I have since ordered a copy and will see if Multihulls Magazine will allow me to post it in the Private Members Only section. I'll advise the group when I have it posted.

Regards,

Pat Ross
pat@multihulldynamics.com

[petrel]

Pat,

I have been digging through my old Telstar files and found a not great but readable copy of an article from March/April 1979 Multihulls Magazine titled "Folding the Telstar... the easy way" Is this the article you are referring to? If so how please advise me how to post the article on this forum?

Geoffrey

[Pat Ross]

Pat,

I have been digging through my old Telstar files and found a not great but readable copy of an article from March/April 1979 Multihulls Magazine titled "Folding the Telstar... the easy way" Is this the article you are referring to? If so how please advise me how to post the article on this forum?

Geoffrey

I already posted that article on this forum. Here is the link http://www.telstarowners.org/cms/viewto ... =274#p1767

Pat

[Andre]

This is the ama lift I made after much trial and error. The strap goes under the hull and attaches to the lower ama bracket. The square tube locates on the trailer cross tube. Simply crank away. The forces are quite small, my 12 year old son has no problem raising the ama by himself.

[Andre]

The ama lift square tube changes its angle as the ama is raised or lowered. The strap forms a kind of cradle to support the ama hull. As long as the square tube is long enough the winch and tube will never touch the hull. The trailer has a tongue extension that lets the boat get in deep enough water with out sinking the tow vehicle. I tried to get the boat as low as possible on the trailer to aid in launching. When I swing the amas into position the clearance between the ama and fenders decreases. I modified the fenders so they hinge out of the way and the amas just touch the tires. This let me drop the boat about 4 inches. The boat is held from rotating by the supports you can see in the picture. The supports are adjusted with a large acme screw. I have used them to adjust the angle of the boat but never by much. I have often thought that a system like yours with a sliding sub frame would be better. It takes a lot of time to uncouple the trailer pull forward, deploy the tongue extension and recouple.