Best way to conect sail track on a wooden mast

[Dragan]

I am about to purchasing sail track , sliders and fastening screws . Seller from "Classic Marine " suggest me 2 ways for fastening the track to the mast :
1. Using 10g x 25 mm silicon bronze counter sunk woodscrews
2. Drilling holes in the mast, fill hole with epoxy then drill and tap for a countersunk machine screw
I would like to hear some experience about that mater ,or maybe some other suggestion , because I've got to order it in next few days

Thanks in advance
Dragan

[Ian McColgin]

There are two main types of track. The flat faced T section is more used on decks. It would indeed need countersunk flat head screws that exactly fit the holes that are either alread in or that you will drill.

More commonly on wooden masts the track has the flat against the mast and is a sort of flanged trough. Like -i__i- . Use your imagination. Anyway, then you'd use round head wood screws that mostly fill the space in the trough (between the sides I've represented as i's) and don't stick up above the flanges.

Getting about an inch - 25mm - into the wood is good.

[Bruce Hooke]

The second method certainly sounds like a good way of keeping water from working in around the screws, soaking into the wood, and providing a starting point for rot...

[paladin]

...and add a feather to the back of the mast...

[Ian McColgin]

Palidin's remark reminded me: It's usual with the trough type track to have a little bit of a wood strip spacer just as wide as the flat bottom of the track. This will help keep the slides from jamming against the mast.

If you have mast bands or soft eye shrouds, the wood spaceer is absolutely necessary to accomodate them under the track.

[kc8pql]

The spacer also makes easier to keep finish off the track when varnishing or painting the mast.

[ssor]

I like to countersink the screw hole a little and apply a bedding compound at each screw. When the screw tightens the bedding compound fills the countersink and seals out the water.

[Dan McCosh]

It would depend on the size of the mast and the loads on the track. There is a significant load on the track at the headboard when the sail is reefed. Our track mainly is simply fastened with screws, with the aforementioned spacer. At the reef points, it is through-bolted with tie rods running through the mast. The epoxy-tapping idea works well, but I haven't found it necessary for a sail track, and it is a bit tedious.

[John of Phoenix]

I've found the epoxy tapping routine is great for waterproofing, but doesn't provide the strength of a regular pilot hole drilled into the wood, filled with unthickened epoxy (use a syring) then followed by the screw. Depending on the application, you can put the screw into the wet epoxy, or if that's too messy, like your sail track, wait for the epoxy to set, then screw things down.

Drilling out an enlarged hole then filling it with epoxy/silica/wood flour mix seems easier to strip when setting the screw. If you're setting a nut or a T-nut for a machine screw in epoxy it should hold well, but that's lots of extra work and expense for not much (any?) extra benefit.

[Ian McColgin]

Countersunk flat heads are only for T shape track. For trough shaped track, you want a ruondhead to better distribute the load.

Goblin did not have any special reinforcements holding the track in at the peak or the reefed peaks. I never sailed her in winds much over 45 knots but up to that point she was fine.

The clew area out on the booms, especially for the staysails, was subject to very high loading but that's handled by track reinforcement under the outhaul car and by reef outhaul placement.

Even through the spacer makes annual painting or varnishing easier, I still find it far faster to tape the track than to scrape ginge off after.

I'm not sanguine about epoxy set screws in a mast. They will unscrew ok - that's not the problem. I use one of the non-permanent bond type bedding compounds under the track anyway. If you tap all the holes before hand, and then run the screws through the track and through the bedding compound into the mast, you'll get just enough squeeze out between the track and the screw head to have a properly sealed job.

I like to have the mast varnished all the way around before installing the spacer strip, which should also be bedded and can be lightly pinned in place. The 25mm screw length should be what gets into the mast and you'll need to allow for the spacer strip of T section thickness.

[Ed Burnett]

Dragan,

You don't mention if you are using the external "trough" type track as others have described, or the internal "C" type that Classic Marine also offer. If this is anything other than a pretty small boat they may well be recommending the C section which is rather better.

If you are having C section, don't go using round head screws or you might have a bit of trouble hoisting the sail.

The epoxy route is nice, but time consuming. If you bed the track properly normal csk woodscrews will be fine.

[Dragan]

I will use internal track .And by the way I'm building 34 foot steel boat . Mast is about 46 foot long .