winter store-mast up or down?

[victorias]

I am new to sailing, and my 27' Hunter which is on her 2nd year of on lake sailing in the NE, will be stored outside at a Marina. I am not sure if it is better to store her with her mast up (cheaper) or mast down. Her rigging seems to be in good shape.
Thanks for any advice!

[Brezzin]

There are different opinions regarding this. So having done both I'll add mine. The yard likes them down for a couple of reasons. First of which is they can charge you for taking it down and putting it up. Secondly, the mast up creates windage that given the correct circumstances could topple the boat and damage nearby boats. So they charge you extra for more poppet's. Also being in NE you get Ice. So if you don't cover the boat you may get damage from falling ice from the rigging.

Ok now the pluses, It's less money for you. You don't have to fully re-tune the rig in the spring. Your mast and boat won't get beat up during the process.
A simple compromise I use is every other year, using the down year for inspections and repairs. With a 27 footer I won't hesitate to leave the mast up.

[Warren M.]

If your marina gives you a choice (some do not), and you are in an area where it doesn't blow like hell a lot, I'd leave the mast up. I have my H28.5 hauled every winter in a yard about 20 miles south of Annapolis so we have fairly moderate winters. Storms (including ice storms) do occur, but are usually not severe. The yard where the boat is stored typically holds between 1,000 - 1,200 boats, mostly sail boats. Virtually every boat is blocked with the mast up. As far as I can tell, they have never had any problems related to storing boats with their masts up. I would only unstep my mast if I had specific work to do on it.

[camaraderie]

Mast up and point the boat into where the wind comes from!