Warped Mast and Mast Repair

[capnharv]

Hi. I know this subject has been touched on before, but I'd like to ask again.

I've pulled the mast out of our Friendship sloop to take down to bare wood and fix any bad spots. I've noticed the mast is warped sideways (across the beam). It's pretty noticable too-probably 3-4 inches on a 30' mast. I should mention that it's a solid mast. So far it doesn't look like it's been pieced together-it looks like one big stick.

I've read about blocking it and weighing it down and steaming it to try to straighten it. I've also read about splitting it lengthwise and regluing it (something I'm not keen to do on that size mast).

Anybody got other ideas?

While I've got it out, I'm curious about how bad a spot needs to be to cut out and put in new wood.

Also, the cleats on the mast seem to be a different wood than the mast. The mast appears to be spruce and the cleats appear to be mahogany (?). Is there a compatibility problem with using different woods for cleats? What about different wood (possibly Doug Fir) for mast repairs?

As you can tell I have a lot more questions than answers.

Help?

Thanks,

Harvey

[Thorne]

I have the same problem in a much more minor way -- my 13' solid mahogany mast has maybe a 1" warp about 1/3 up the mast.

I'm oiling it and hanging buckets of water from the ends and center while encouraging it to bend the right way with sawhorses. But most likely your problem will require a more professional solution...

[Bob Cleek]

That's really not that much on a mast that size. You should be able to pull her true when you rig her. Just balance the rigging tension, don't crank it down till she screams. In the meantime, I'd just lay the mast on a level surface with a block or three under it to counteract the bend. It may well find its way back straight. The tree grew straight and the mast was made straight, so it should come back into true. It's not a big deal. Most spars of any size take a set when they are out of the boat, it seems. They aren't strong enough to stay straight without rigging.

I wouldn't scarf in a different type of wood if you need to replace a spot. Better that it all moves at the same rate. Scarfing in a section of different wood will very likely make the mast bend when it moves for sure.

[Patrick Miller]

When I bought my little 20' boat way back in 1984 the mast had a bend like a quarter tonner. It seemed to me that it was because the original rigger had not used diamond jumper stays above the spreaders. She was designed as a three quarter rig and so with the backstay at the mast head and the forestay at three quarter height the mast took a sweep aft (with a corresponding bulge forward below the forestay.

Well, I took the mast out and derigged it and sanded 20 years of paint back to the Douglas fir (what we call Oregon here in Oz). Throughout the winter I tried to weight it back to straight with no success whatsoever.

I varnished the mast and rerigged it with a pair of diamond jumpers and pulled the bend out. It stayed perfectly straight, and I sold the boat a couple of years later. After three subsequent owners I bought her back again in 2001. The mast was still as straight as it could be.

As part of the restoration I pulled the stick out and what do you think happened when I took the tension of the jumpers? That's right, after 17 years of straightness the mast took on its old bend and that's the way it will stay until I set up the rigging again.

The moral of my story is: don't waste valuable time trying to straighten out a mast in the unrigged state. Spend the time doing something that will give you a positive result. I'm sure there are hundreds of other jobs that need doing.

When the time comes to put the mast back in and re-rig it, you'll have all the wires you need to convince the mast to stand up straight and do its duty.

[FSS172]

Harvey - On a round stick like we got on our old gaffers, the thing that determines which way it faces is how it's stepped and the placement of hardware. And if your sloop's bald-headed there's probably not a lot of hardware or other fittings to deal with. So something you might consider is moving things around and doing what needs to be done at the step so you can rotate the mast so it bends aft. Then when you rig her up, straightening out the bend with the headstays'll put some additional tension on those saggy headsail luffs and get you goin' to windward right up there 'longside them funny-lookin' boats with the pointy-headed mains. RIght.... well just a thought...

As to your bad wood, how bad and where is it?

Jim

[capnharv]

Thanks for the responses. While the mast is laying down I'll try to straighten it with weights.

Patrick, a couple of problems with taking the warp out with the rigging is that the rig is fairly short (gaff with no topmast), the mast is pretty stout (6-8") and I don't have spreaders or turnbuckles to pull it straight (I have deadeyes on the shrouds). If the mast were thinner and/or I had spreaders/struts to tension it I could use that method.

Frankly, I like Jim's idea best about rotating the mast 90 deg (so the warp is fore and aft). I have to pull the cleats, eye bolts for the peak halyard and the boom rest, but that's part of what should be done in checking the mast anyway.

Bob, I could be wrong about the amount of warp. It could be more. The mast is ceratinly has lots of wobble when I roll it. It's had the warp for a long time, and my concern was originally that I had a pieced mast that was coming apart or the warpage was due to rot in critical areas. These do not seem to be the case.

Regarding the rot, none of it seems to be deep that I've found so far-I dont' have the mast completely stripped yet. The wood under the copper mast band (where the gaff jaws ride) is suprisingly good (where I thought the rot would be). The mast step had considerable rot that was repaired about 5 years ago. There's also a masthead wire buried under a lenghtwise spline (that looks like Douglas Fir). Since the wire is no longer necessary I'd like to pull the spline and wire out and replace the fir with spruce.

When I get this done I plan to cover the mast with CPES and paint it again.

Thanks again for all the help!

Harvey