I have a 1966 Spencer 42
Sloop, and it has the original spruce
mast.
A couple of months back I picked up a new boom for my
boat, a 19' Sparcraft that was a takeoff for someone going to a
roller furling boom and happened to be exactly the right size for my boat!
I noticed removing the old boom how heavy it was in comparison to the
Aluminum, 3-5x the weight! It was all I could do with a friend to maneuver it down off the
boat and that was using a
winch, where as I was able to mount the
Aluminum boom by myself!
This has me thinking as I know where there is a 56'
mast that would fit my boat, looking up the specs on that section it is 5.58 LB's per foot which is pretty light.
Here is my sail plan:
My
current mast is 48' above the
deck, so standing this mast I would be a full 8' taller adding almost 17% to the height of my rig.
Which understanding that the rig is a lever I understand that difference is exponential.
What I am trying to discern however is considering that right now my boat will carry full sail through 20 knots before it starts dipping a rail, she has the 8,000 lb ballast
keel and I will be going back with
Dyneema Rigging which is 1/4 the weight of the 19 strand stainless, and that the Aluminum will likely be lighter than the spruce, I am wondering if it is wondering if this Mast would
work with my boat?
The Dims on the
current rig are:
I: 46.50 ft
J: 16.50 ft P: 39.75 ft E: 18.50 ft
Main: 414 SQFT
Genoa: 482 SQFT (150%)
Total: 896 SQFT
The proposed rig would be:
I: 54.50 ft
J: 16.50 ft
P: 47.74 ft
E: 18.50 ft
Main: 486 SQFT
Genoa: 581 SQFT
Total: 1067 SQFT
Thus the extra 8' of mast would pick up an additional 171 SQFT of sail area which is a gain of about 19%.
So it is not insignificant as it would give her a sail area to
displacement ratio of 23.17, where as now she is at 19.46 (assuming 20,000 lbs
displacement, although she is actually about 26,000 lbs in the slings according to the travel
lift here anyways) Increasing the SA/D ratio about 19% so I can assume that under full sail it would drive her much harder.
I know right now in light air she is a bit slow, really the boat doesn't come alive till you are above 8-10 knots steady, and when you have two sailboats headed in the same direction in light air, I have found myself wanting more sail area!
Over 15 she turns into a rocket and at 20 I am swapping for my 85% yankee and throwing the first reef in by 22-25.
The other thought I have it to just cut 4 or so feet off the bottom of the mast and move the fittings up. Considering the shrouds would be near vertical I would think this could be a workable solution but I am unsure?
I am due for new chain plates and my
sails are going to need to be done within the next year-2 so that is not an issue.
It is a lot to think about and figure out but before I can set out on any open ocean adventures this is something I need to have absolutely sorted.
Any insight here would be greatly appreciated!