Bent mast, measurement question and a shameless solicitation

[persephone]

Happy spring to all,

So I'll be participating in my first racing events this year. I'm not expecting to be overly competitive, I'm doing it for the fun and camaraderie primarily and my sails are tired (my main looks like it's having a baby...LoL).

Anyway, today's questions are;
My mast is bent at the bottom. It is a tapered mast, so the cross section at the base is substantial. There is a slight bend (maybe 5 degrees) to one side. I tried wedging the end between a few trees and applying pressure opposite the bend. It didn't help any. Has anyone successfully straightened a mast of this type? How?

Second question. Does the centerboard need to be removed to be weighed for a measurement certificate? I'm assuming it does as I can't see any way of determining it's weight in the boat, but I'd like to be sure before I remove it as it does not leak one drop at the moment.

I have a long list of repairs and some changes to make. That ought to keep me busy this spring. Job one is to strip all the old paint off and re-paint the hull.
I opted for a highly rated professional orbital/rotary sander/polisher and dust collector. Sort of a necessity as I'm working on my boat at the high end automotive shop where I work (dust was out of the question).
My wife says I need to earn some money to help pay for it. If anyone in my area needs sanding work done dust free (system is supposed to collect near 99% of dust over 3 microns) I'll work for a very reasonable rate. I can also do aircraft quality composite repair (even vacuum sealed repairs on portable parts). Contact me here or via e-mail (theflyingcloud at gmail dot com).