Mast for oar and sail Dory- Went for Sitka Spruce, bought Doug Fir

[SteveClausen]

Did I do all right ?

I am building a new mast for my 17' Swampscott dory. The mast will be 16', un-stayed, 3.5"" at the partners and tapering to either 2.5 or 2.75.

I went to a specialty lumber yard for Sitka Spruce after a phone call to them they said they had 16' 2x4s at $100 a piece, I was willing to go to $200.00 for the wood for the new mast. Well, they didn't really have 16' 2x4s. They had a several other dimensions that would have worked with a glue up, but would have required buying more than I needed.
They had a nice 4X6 by 20' for $300.

I shifted down to the Doug Fir pile and spied some 16' 4x4s. I hefted a few and though they seemed heavy, Then I found one that didn't seem so heavy, with straight grain all the way through. I asked what the price would be and was told $84.00. I've been reading, mostly on this Forum, that Doug Fir is an acceptable wood for small boat masts. I thought it would be nice to skip the glue up stage. Although gluing two more more pieces together may make it stronger?

Anyway I spring for the Doug Fir 4x4.

[David G]

You should be fine. 'Twere me... I'd skinny up the scantlings a bit. Either overall, or starting at the partner, and more of a taper than specified.

[James McMullen]

Looks totally fine to me. Have at 'er!

[TerryLL]

I used DF for the mast on my first dory, a 16' Gardner Swampscott. Other than the weight it worked just fine. If you're willing to add a shroud either side and a forestay you can go with a much lighter mast. It complicates the set-up, but not by much, and if you're flying a jib you'll likely need the shrouds and forestay for decent performance.

[SteveClausen]

Thanks for the replies. I'll start whittling on it.

Read a few places that the tapper should not be on the aft side for a Bermuda or gaff sail. The sail I have now is a Bermuda style on a Sliding Gunter. I'm getting rid of the Gunter as it's too cumbersome to rig at sea.
Eventually I'm going Balanced Lug but want to take it one step at a time. So I'm making the mast first that would accommodate a lug sail of the Penny Fee size, and going to fly to the old sail on the new mast for this season then maybe sew a new sail over the winter, unless of course I have resounding success with the new mast and old sail, then I may rethink the new sail.
So what have others done with respect to tapper on a small boat like this? Do you take into consideration the sail type? or just tapper all sides?

[Thorne]

My dory skiff mast is two DF 2x4's epoxied together, then shaped roughly to the same dimensions. I left the mast unfinished for the first sail, so it was no problem to remove a bit more wood before finishing it. Since my sail is an old Sabot sail modified to robands, and I fly a big jib, I had the glue line and wide part of the oval run fore and aft, with the thin parts of the oval to the sides. It still bends forward and spoils the sail shape a bit, so what they say about stays above may be an option for you if you have that problem with current or future sail types.

[Yeadon]

The 4x4 will work great, though you could have also bought one 2x4 and built a birdsmouth spar.

[skaraborgcraft]

No worries,that will work fine. I have just built a 15ft stick from two lams of2x4, and literally sawn in some tapers on all sides and knocked off the corners....it still looks pretty squarish. Building quality fir,knots n all....but better than the grown stick that still going. Cant say i have ever been into paring down to the smallest diameter or making hollow spars of sticks this size...just dont see the point when the live crew can make so much difference to heel just by moving. Having said that, i dont strike the rig at sea,so a much lighter spar may be better in that situation.

[Wooden Boat Fittings]

Fifteen-foot Aileen Louisa's mast is solid oregon, and perfectly okay. Oregon is the timber of choice for spars out here -- sitka spruce just isn't in our consideration set.

The size sounds about right to me (perhaps a little on the heavy side, but that's okay,) but if you wanted to save a little extra weight you could taper below the partners to perhaps 2" or so at the step.

Mike

[Michael Wick]

I built a DF bird's mouth spar for a melonseed, 16 foot by 3 1/4 inches tapered to 2 1/4, but it was heavy. I broke a couple of other spars and decided to plane it down to 3/8 inch wall, then epoxy a carbon fiber sock over it (from Soller composites). It is much lighter and is strong so far with a nice taper.