What wood to use for mast repair?

[Bert van den Berg]

The box constructed wood masts of our 16 year old Taiwan built 44' Hudson
Seawolf ketch needs some repairs to replace a couple of rotted sections.
After unsuccessfully trying to find some spar grade spruce in the North
island of New Zealand I am open to an alternative wood.

The original wood is advertised to be Sitka spruce. I will be using
Resorcinol (sp?) to scarf in the new sections. The repairs are below the
spreaders and not nearly subject to as much bending as the upper sections
(which are fine).

Any suggestions would be welcome.

Best regards,

Bert van den Berg
www.cruzpro.com (http://www.cruzpro.com)
CruzPro Ltd.
90-B Don Buck Road
Massey 1008
New Zealand

Tel: (64)-9-833-5065
Fax: (64)-9-833-5875

[Mike Vogdes]

Maybe you can find an old sitka spar salvage? There's lots of abandoned boats to be found in the marinas in this area, possibly you could find something worth cutting up to reuse.

[rrowlands]

I woud strongly recomend only using the exact same wood for the repair as the original construction. The mast is not only subject to bending but also compression. The "new wood" should have the same characteristics as the original in order to behave the same. If the woods don't act the same they will be working against each other and cause stress which is the beginning of failure.

I repaired a spruce spar three yearsc ago and it has held the finish well and is indistinguishable except at extreme close viewing.

Good luck.

[Lucky Luke]

Hello,
of course, you will try to use a similar wood, (although I understand that the dalmage is minimal...hope it is!), specially if your spar is varnished (?), but do not use resorcinol. It is a good glue only if the film can be very thin and if you can apply pressure. Use epoxy.