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Mast/Rigging repair question

PostPosted: Sat Mar 25, 2023 7:03 pm
by Dgarren
Looks like one of the side stays gave way with the previous owner, causing my mast to fall over. This pulled the screws out of one side of the mast base. Thinking I need to trim the bottom end of the mast off by about an inch to remove the damaged/bent area. Then I’m left with a couple choices on how to proceed.

Option 1 - do nothing, and work with a mast that’s an inch shorter than normal. If I go this route, will standard rigging still function well, or should I also shorten all that by an inch? Assuming that the rigging is slightly adjustable with the turnbuckles, so this might not be a big deal? Will the standard sail measurements still work (ordering sails soon)? Assuming the sail is a lesser concern than the standing rigging, but worth checking.

Option 2 - build up the mast base by an equivalent amount as the mast is reduced. This negates any concerns with standing rigging or sails.

Any suggestions on which way to proceed on this? Thanks in advance!

Re: Mast/Rigging repair question

PostPosted: Sat Mar 25, 2023 10:04 pm
by GreenLake
  1. Beef up your chainplates. There are a number of posts here on that fix for the DSII.
  2. If you simply cut your mast, you may run out of adjustment for your stays. It depends on your turnbuckles and where they are set today.
  3. That single inch should not matter too much for the main, your boom would simply get one inch closer to your heads. It does impact the angle for the vang; that angle is marginal already.
  4. The luff of the jib would also need to be checked. If the sail has a luff wire, that would need to be trimmed (unless there's an inch of free halyard that you can use to compensate). If not, you'll also need to look into whether the cloth can work with a shorter luff wire.
  5. It's not difficult to add to the mast support. Anything that doesn't get crushed by 3-400 lbs of pressure would be fine. With a tabernacle, there shouldn't be any force on that support other than down.
I would probably go with #5, unless I ran into some real issue.

Re: Mast/Rigging repair question

PostPosted: Mon Apr 03, 2023 11:28 am
by Dgarren
Thanks Green Lake! Was expecting your #5 answer was the right one, so I'll go that route. Thinking I can glass in a mast base that's equivalent in height to what I lose from the mast base, and keep everything as initially designed. Finally warming up enough to start working on the boat again...

Re: Mast/Rigging repair question

PostPosted: Tue May 02, 2023 12:04 pm
by Leob1
I had the same problem, I had a turnbuckle failure which caused my mast to fall. The bolt holes that held the tabernacle tore and I had to cut an inch off the bottom of the mast for the new tabernacle. I added a block under the mast step equal to the inch of the mast I cut off. Unless you looked you'd never know it was there. I was lucky in that I just did a compression post repair(which was installed by a blind man with a bucket of epoxy), so I knew where to screw the block to the structure.
Good Luck.

Re: Mast/Rigging repair question

PostPosted: Wed Jul 05, 2023 4:06 pm
by Tipster1
162616051603 Found some PVC house trim - lasted 10 years so far.