mast repair

[paul anderson]

I single handedly took down the mast yesterday.It was a bit tricky but luckily there are some trees which assisted in the mast lowering.

When i raised the mast a few years ago I must have damaged the foot of the mast.This allowed water ingress and to swell the timber at the foot,splitting the glass.With this in mind I will glue a rubber strip to the bottom of the mast after replacing the damaged timber.I am considering cutting 5mm off the base of the mast and gluing on a hardwood ''shoe'' to protect the softwood at the base of the mast.

Other than that the mast and synthetic rigging has weathered well.

[Thomas Nielsen]

I have seen a similar issue at the mast base.  Instead of gluing on a rubber patch how about coating the bottom in 3M 5200.  You can trowel on a thin coat and drive it into the wood then build up a layer as a pad. 

[paul anderson]

Thomas this is a great idea mate. Turns out the pine had wicked water higher up the mast than I thought.I chiseled out the damp pine and replaced it with a bit of hardwood.

[paul anderson]

So I decided to just glass the bottom of the mast with heavy cloth and loads of epxoy round the foot. I will take extra care when raising it next time.