Catalina 350 International Association

I will be taking my 350 "Runs on Water" through the Champlain canal in upper NYS this spring. I will need to have the marina unstep the mast and lay it on supports above the deck. There are mutiple low bridges enroute. Basically I need to build a cradle for the mast to lay on. Typical do-it-yourself cradles that I've seen include a stern, bow and mid-section support and are fahsuoned out of 2x4s. I've got a design in mind but wonder if anyone out there has built such a cradle and happend to take a photo they could share. If you've done this do you have any recommendations for me? Thanks. Eric

Hi Eric,

I built some supports last year, for winter storage on the boat. Attached are a couple of photos.

This thread is a little old, so wondering whether anyone has additional suggestions.

We are heading down Lake Champlain and through the Champlain Locks to the Hudson River this fall on our way to Virginia. The mast will need to come down and lay in a cradle above the deck to get under the 18' bridges in the canal. We plan to leave our dodger, bimini and solar panels installed, so will need to cradle the mast above them. I assume we will create three cradle points; at the bow, mast step (covering the step from weather too) and the stern.

This presents several problems:
1) Will cradling the mast above the solar panels cause too much instability? I've heard that the C36 rolls a lot with a cradled mast.
2) The cradle point in the stern will need to clear my bimini which ends 6-8 inches beyond the stern rail.
3) We also have the hatches in the sugar scoop transom which we'd like to access and may be too light weight to support the mast weight.

I'd really appreciate some voices of experience and examples of what has worked and not worked for others.

Ken
2007 C350 "Reverie"

I went 450 miles with a similar rig down the TennTom and across 3 foot rollers across mobile bay with no problem I would suggest a middle support right in front of the dodger

What is not shown here is the aft brace over the Davit. It was not installed yet but I think you need three supports so that you don't bounce. And center the mast better