my mast saga has begun

[rebel heart]

I'm blogging about it:

Rebel Heart - The boat and her crew - Eric's Blog - - The hallout (read: "mast saga") has*begun

And talking to some folks over on the wooden boat forums:

just stripped the mast: need some advice - The WoodenBoat Forum

Just thought I'd drop a line and let everyone know what's going on, since I was fishing for input on this before I started it. For all of you with your rigs attached, consider yourselves fortunate! :-)

[Joli]

Aluminum maybe? or as the Brits say alu minium

[MarkJ]

You're doing a "hallout"?



Which hall are you doing it in?




Not that I should be picking up anyone for spelling but thats a bit funny

Anyway, hope the 2 of you are well, and we are now closer to bumping into you cruising! At least we are just about boat-bought


Mark

[Kanani]

Hi Eric,

I had the same masts on my Passport 45. In fact, they were probably made by the same people, as my boat was built in the same yard as yours.

In '91, I scarfed a piece into the main mast where the spreaders attach. It also had wood rot and termites. We bagged the mast and gassed the little buggers. The scarf was easier than I ever imagined.

I then stripped the entire mast, coated it with 3 coats of West Systems epoxy, 2-coats epoxy primer, 2 coats LP paint. There is NO WAY that I was going to varnish those damn things every year and I knew it.

I then sailed the boat around the world and when I sold the boat in 2000, the masts were still in perfect condition.

I also considered going to aluminum (or carbon fiber) masts until I realized how light, strong and flexible those Spruce box masts are. In fact, I was shocked that my wife and I could pick up that 55' long mast, all by ourselves. In the event of a rigging failure, the wood mast is far less likely to fail then an aluminum mast. It will bend farther with more resistance before fracturing.