can a mast be too tall?

[hornby sailor]

I am looking at a 79 maple leaf custom 40(shortened 42) named solid gold, and it looks like a very tall mast was installed later. what will the effect of this be on rolling action and stability? it is on facebook marketplace in campbell river b.c. Canada and was on sailboat listings .com in the past as 42.

[boatman61]

I would be more concerned with sail performance, delivered a steel boat once that had had an oversized mast fitted and she was more or less unmanageable with the steerage problems too much canvas created.. ended up motoring for the whole trip.
Is the mast upgrade recent or tried and tested.???

[hornby sailor]

it was added in 2005, boat sold around 2010, only 1030 hours on engine, and last owner never went more than 20 miles away, lived aboard seasonally at marina.

[boatman61]

Get the owner to take you for a sail and see how she handles, should give you clues as to stability.

[Manateeman]

The simple answer is yes. Boatman is giving you sound advice.
Pull a string up the spar and measure it. Is it just a “tall” rig option?
How it sails has a lot to do with where and when you sail. A number of American sail fishing craft had two rigs. Tall for summer, short for winter.
If you are going to sail at high latitude, you might choose a shorter mast.
If the height of the mast is greater than the plans call out, you need to do the calculations to see how much stability has been lost. You could bolt on more lead to the keel but there is a point where this will not work . Static stability is not the only test for a seaworthy vessel.
We need more info to answer your question properly.
The manatee crew.

[chrisr]

very true. use to know a DK43 race boat which had been sailed in SEAsia (was owned by the MD of DK yachts). she had a BIG rig as the weather in the area was mainly light

boat came down to australia and had all sorts of trouble...over powered badly

eventually changed hands and the next owner reduced rig size dramatically. boat performed much better and rated lower

cheers,

[JPA Cate]

Hello, hornby sailor,

The answer to your question partly depends on your location, where you will be sailing. I saw "hornby", and thought, oh, probably British, but in fact there's at least one Hornby here in Oz, maybe more. If you're sailing the North Sea then maybe you'd simply buy a shorter mainsail, or sail with a deep reef? I suppose you could be on the East Coast of the US, or in Canada, as well, or even New Zealand..... If you want to transit the ICW (in the US), the height limit is 65 ft. Maybe the tall rig was put on because the PO didn't like messing about with the mizzen sail, and left the mizzen mast there to hang things on.

If you will have to sail through light wind areas, like coming out of Panama bound for the Galapagos or Marquesas, you might well appreciate the ability to raise the full mainsail.

One thing you can do to help people with answers to your questions is to fill in your general location and boat type (or "looking") on your profile page.

Ann

[boatman61]

Well the boat is in Canada BC, Campbell River.. so I presume he'll have to sail her home from there.

[Caleb_Grey]

Besides the mast, make sure you have the hull looked at closely.
Those boats were known to delaminate, and blister badly.
I remember Bob Perry saying somewhere he was called in to remedy the layup schedules, and even after there were still problems, just not a good yard.

[Adelie]

Originally Posted by hornby sailor

I am looking at a 79 maple leaf custom 40(shortened 42) named solid gold, and it looks like a very tall mast was installed later. what will the effect of this be on rolling action and stability? it is on facebook marketplace in campbell river b.c. Canada and was on sailboat listings .com in the past as 42.

An extra tall mast will have several effects:
A. The roll period will be increased, ie it will be slower. Generally this should make the boat more comfortable in rolling conditions.
B. Stability will be decreased, to what extent depends on mast section and amount of added height. The added height will provide for faster sailing in light air and downwind but you will need to reef earlier.
C. AVS will be decreased. Depending on addition length and section, it’s probably inconsequential. If the boat turns turtle it will probably take a bit more time to right itself.
D. Counterintuitively the boat will be be more capsize resistant, capsize is a dynamic phenomenon and increase mast height provides a vastly disproportionate increase in roll moment of inertia which resists capsize. Stability is a static phenomenon even when the boat is moving thru the water and provides little if any resistance to capsize.

Mast height/ weight is traded off against ballast and beam and hull shape. A 10% or so increase in mast height probably is probably fine without a review by a naval architect. By the time you get to a 20% increase it’s probably time to make sure sure such a review was done.