box section mast

[Dan Irvine]

I've finally stepped the sitka spruce laminated mast on my 32'cutter. She has a bit of an "s" curve to 'er and I am wondering if perfection is the ideal or a small curve is OK. Lots of room for adjustments as double spreaders at 15 and 30 ft on this 45 ' mast. The mast had a slight twist/bend below the lower spreader from being improperly stored. Any advice on plumb tolerances would be lovely. SY Grace O'Malley.

[Ian McColgin]

Firstly, I compliment your vessel on her name. I was originally planning to name my Marco Polo "Grace O'Malley" but my letterer measured wrongly and by the time I'd made the trail boards that name would not fit. So she is "Granuaile," which does confuse some who think it's "Granola" and Irish tourists have no agreement as to whether I spelled her name correctly or not.

Anyway, the mast is a compression structure and unplanned bending may be a very large problem. Among the seven (I think that's my total) masts I've broken is one that I broke at the dock just careening the boat by pulling on the hallyard from an adjoining slip. It had a bit of curve both fore and aft and athwartshipes and a little twist. I never got a chance to see if twiddling the lowers, mids and jumpers would fix it.

If you can't get the mast to stand up straight with the stays, I'd suggest you crack out the glue lines and try again.

Maybe look at the way you alligned the grain on the staves - this is a common problem.

[ 04-05-2005, 07:37 AM: Message edited by: Ian McColgin ]

[mmd]

What Ian said. If you can see it, it's bad.