Top of mast painted white?

[David Satter]

Why are the tops of some traditional boat/masts painted white. A lot of answers around but not sure. On my last boat I painted the mast buff color and the end of the boom and the top 2 feet of the mast white. Just because I liked the look. The boat I'm restoring now has an aluminum mast and I'm thinking about painting the top white. Again just because I like the look. Dave

[wizbang 13]

On a gaffer, the top of the mast is traditionaly painted cuz the bottom gets the chit beat outta it.
Folks do it on some Bermudian masts cuz they can or they like the look .

[Marty J]

The received wisdom is that wood masts were traditionally varnished or oiled to make structural deficiencies easier to spot, but the ends were painted to protect end grain from moisture. The buff paint with white tip that we sometimes see is a nod to that practice. I think it's a bit affected but can be filed under "spirit of tradition."

[wizbang 13]

seeing deficiencies under varnish or oil is a self fulfilling prophesy if there ever was one

[Canoeyawl]

I always figured it was an affectation carried over from ships.
Which the ends of yards etc were painted white so on a dark and stormy night you would know that you were close to falling off the end...

[Nicholas Scheuer]

I've heard it started on the Chesapeake.

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

A gaff rigged working boat’s mast from the deck to the hounds was left bare and slushed with tallow so that the gaff jaws and the mast hoops would slide easily over it. The masthead didn’t have anything sliding over it so it was painted and white paint kept the sun at bay better.

Nobody who owned these boats could afford varnish.

I know nothing about the Chesapeake but this was standard practice in Europe.

[The Q]

Yep I'd agree with that,
But some owners wanted to stand out..
norfolk-wherry-trust-ludham-4.jpg

[David Satter]

Andrew, That sounds good and practical.

[David Satter]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topmas...en%20in%20the%

[schoonerpacket]

My understanding it's like a collie tail tip, white to be seen. My catboat has the upper bit white and I have confirmed it's far easier to spot at a distance. I'm sticking with it.

[wizbang 13]

Not in the ocean it don’t show up

[David G]

The primary purpose, in my book, is that it protects the varnish way up there at the top of the spar, where no one sees it, and where it often is neglected. There are some ancillary benefits...

[Canoeyawl]

There's going to be a lot of opinions on this one
Like thru nails made of wood...

[Bob Cleek]

Well, there are lots of reasons, some good and some not. Another good one is that if you have a varnished mast, when you get to the masthead in a bosun's chair to varnish the top of the mast, you'll find that it's a difficult job because the shrouds, stays, rigging fittings, halyard blocks, and the two-blocked bosun's chair tackle all conspire to make it extremely difficult to sand, dust, and varnish beneath all of that, assuming in the first place that you can reach the top of the mast from the two-blocked bosun's chair. Painting the top of the mast white avoids the need to varnish that inaccessible area. The white paint lasts much longer and can be repainted when the mast is out for major refitting or from a bosum's chair hung from a crane, a task that doesn't need to be done very often.

[skuthorp]

From the tower on race day white topmasts are much easier to spot, especially in mist or rain.

[Edward Pearson]

It's from the point the end grain starts to become exposed from the start of the spar's taper that it was covered with more durable white paint. Especially at the mast tip pointing to the rain: to stop water penetration along end grain.

The individually patterned/ coloured topsails gave the land team the identity of the boat coming back in.

[heimlaga]

An old man who was old enough to have known men who had sailed aboard square rigged wooden merchant ships though he must have been a decade or two too young to do it himself told me that yard arms were painted white so you could see from deck how you braced them even when dark. Gaffs or at least gaff ends were painted white so you could see what you where doing if you had to set or take in sail when dark.

I rekon masts and booms were painted alike to match visually and maybe also to protect the end grain. The rest of the lenght was oiled because no paint would hold up. Yards and gaffs would have torn off any painwork very quick.

[AJZimm]

I painted the tip of the foremast on my sail and oar boat white for two reasons:
1. I originally miscalculated the length of the mast I needed. I scarfed in a piece at the tip to lengthen it after a season of use, and, while it was structurally sound, it wasn't the most elegant appearing scarf joint. The white tip covered that.
2. I knew I would be anchoring in remote coves up the coast that are also used by fishermen, who come in late at night after dark. They are very tired and usually they sweep their spotlights around the cove quickly to spot any other boats that they shouldn't be anchoring on top of. The white mast tip helps my small boat to show up, even when the mast is struck and sticking out the bow, as it usually is at anchor. I added a reflective tape strip at the tip of the foremast and mizzen, too, to increase the nighttime visibility. Didn't get run over once during my Inside Passage trip.

[dpmacv]

This is story that I heard years ago. The top of the mast was painted white so when the boat sinks, God would have a clean spot to grab hold of and pull back up, before she goes under.

[AndanteEd]

This is story that I heard years ago. The top of the mast was painted white so when the boat sinks, God would have a clean spot to grab hold of and pull back up, before she goes under.

Eleonora-E.jpg

It's a pity that Elenora E's masts only had a small section of white paint on their tops, God clearly couldn't get a decent grip...

I'm going with ACB's reasoning in post #7.

[David W Pratt]

Thinking along the visibility line, what about using white, reflective paint? That would really pop when the beam of a spotlight passed over it.