Mast refit?

[andreas.mehlin]

I'm about to do a refit on my mast....new paint, new tangs etc.

When I look at the mast....it looks so over dimensioned.

1) stay sail halyard tang....and baby stay tang. This halyard is used to handle the centerboard...but so heavy duty with all those screws and much material....so wrong by me to call it staysail....cause there is no.

2)
Forestay tang. Same swept bolted thru as baby stay. Halyard box....waaay smaller than for the centerboard

3) spinnaker tang.....very heavy duty with many screws.


......boat is a trimaran. 5/16" shrouds...7000 lbs...

Suggestions what these can be replaced with?

[hellosailor]

Rashly assuming that your goal is to save weight aloft?
Replace it all with titanium parts of the same size. That will reduce the weight and increase the strength.
There's probably no other way for anyone to GUESS what loads are on those parts, and to GUESS how much smaller and lighter you could go.
Either the builder engineered them that way for a reason, or they just used whatever was on their shelf. There's no way to second guess that without a lot of numbers, weights, specific strain estimates, not if you want to do it safely.

[andreas.mehlin]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

Rashly assuming that your goal is to save weight aloft?
Replace it all with titanium parts of the same size. That will reduce the weight and increase the strength.
There's probably no other way for anyone to GUESS what loads are on those parts, and to GUESS how much smaller and lighter you could go.
Either the builder engineered them that way for a reason, or they just used whatever was on their shelf. There's no way to second guess that without a lot of numbers, weights, specific strain estimates, not if you want to do it safely.

I get what you mean...
but when I compare my mast to many other boats in the same size, their tangs/headstay/halyard boxes are much more compact. What I would like to know if there is somebody here, who can tell me, why my mast looks the way it does.

[hellosailor]

Is the maker of your anonymous trimaran still in business? They would know for sure. It could be as simple as "we use the same rig on all our boats" for cost saving. Or, it might have been designed to carry heavier loads, or with a larger safety margin by a more conservative designer. Or, someone who was dismasted by a broach or roll decided that a heavier rig would be a better way to build the boat.

If I look at some Pearson's, I see a tree trunk compared to the bendy mast on some J/boats. Then again, I've seen worn out goosenecks and masts literally cut by lines exiting without a proper halyard guard on small J/boats--but they are racers, they are designed to save weight. I don't think Pearson ever knew what a "scale" was.(G)

We can all guess--you'd need someone from the builder, or a professional designer, to run the numbers and see why yours is different. (And probably rather costly to change.)