James Attianese's Page

What a lovely thing for you to offer to help us! We have just launched on Thursday and left Greene Marine on Friday and are now in Gloucester in thick fog. Our time at Greene was very limited (only 2 weeks) because our family needed us back in Providence on the 9th of Aug to help an elderly family member having major surgery, so we had to hurry through a lot of hard work. But we made it and survived. Peace is now much happier with fresh paint on bottom, topsides, all spars and masts, and new wire rigging and strops. We sure could have used your help while we were there, but we hope to meet you maybe at our September gathering later this year.

thank you so much for the offer, Ann and Nev

Thanks for the photo show, James! Very nice. Ann and Nev

Hi Jim,

the aluminum masts story was a bit of a long story. The short version is that I was finally able to find what I wanted (full length masts with no welds or sleeves) by placing a special order with an industrial metal supplier. The only problem was that there was a minimum of 1100 lbs order. That equals 11 masts! There was also a small print in the contract about plus or minus 15% and because I was at the minimum order, it was plus 30%, minus 0%. Of course, I received a full 15 masts, 33 ft in length (they fully got me with the plus 36% but I paid for plus 30% only). The price was still right because the total order of aluminum tubes, to the exact specifications provided by Wharram, was less than a single mast made by a spar company. I simply had to find takers for 12.5 tubes (I kept 2 masts and a cross-beam for myself), they take up a lot of room in one's backyard. I found five other builders across the entire planet and that was almost the end of the story.

The shipping part was the more difficult aspect. It is not easy nor obvious to crate and ship aluminum tubes that are 33 ft long. Very few shipping companies will touch stuff like that. Also, I didn't know much about brokers and international laws about transport, etc. I was quite the experience but in the end, everybody received their tubes in good conditions at a very good price overall, including shipping.

If you are still interested in a similar experience, I am sure you will find takers but it takes some time. Look for an industrial metal company in your area and tell them what you want. They will have to have it made to order and they charge by the lb. The current price of aluminum is something easy to find online. Be sure to be very specific in what you want/need. The best aluminum for this is 6061T6. The specs are 5.5" OD and a wall thickness of 5/32" (140mm X 4mm if you prefer).

Hope this helps!

Cheers

Martin