Cutting a mast in half

[John Stevens]

I have an 8 foot pram I built a few years ago. A friend gave me a carbon mast off of his wind surfer that fits great but is hard to travel with.

Is there a way of cutting it in half for travel. I was thinking of cutting a piece of wood to put inside it at the cut and snug it back together when I arrive at the water. Will it stay together while sailing? Is there a better way to do it?

TIA,

John Stevens

[Guest Oyster]

Several comments on this one. Always a big issue with removable parts filled with wood, is the ever changing deminsion of the wood. In this particular case, a mast for an eight foot pram may not be an issue of stress, but if the woodend end is lossly fit, the mast will have some sloopiness in the two sections when you rely on the insert to hold it in place and rigid while sailing. I also do not know the type of rigging that is on the pram. But if its loosly hung, say with line, you have also have some problems with getting it up and down, hanging at the joint, if you also add a sleeve to the outside of the joint, fabricating the sleeve in place by means of heavy glass cloth such as biaxall woven. People have also actually made new carbon fiber masts, and there is also kits online for this to be done. But be warned that a lot of varibles exist when a homebuilder uses carbon fiber to do so.

Give us some more information on your transport issues, like are you carrying it on top of a car and the likes. I can't imagine that the mast is that long for that size boat. Could you also get by with a shorter one piece? This question is a very common one around the net, so its not that all uncommon for people to want to do this modification.

[John Stevens]

The mast is around 14 feet. It's a cat rig with no stays. The sail is a sock type. I drive a Honda Accord with the boat on top of the car and I have been tying a line around the mirror and on hanging out the back door. I slide the mast through the lines and secure it with bungie. Is there a better way to attach it to the car? I'd really like to have it in two parts. I saw a guy with an aluminum mast that came apart and was wondering how to do it with the carbon fiber.

John

[Guest Oyster]

Most aluminum masts are a bit more stable than wooden inserted dowels into two components such as you have in the mast. If you are carying the boat on top of your Honda , I take it that you also have a rack? If so I would think that you could let the mast run along side of the rails of the boat on the rack, and if not, whats the big deal about placing a small notch, such as the one that receives a sculling oar in the transom of many small craft, in both ends or double transoms of the hull and let in the mast while transporting the unit?

As a point of note, in my sailboat I have a long sprit pole, 19 feet, which is made up of two wind surfer masts, spliced together with a dowel inside and one layer of finishing cloth on the outside, and have had no problems with it at all.

[John Stevens]

I don't have roof racks on my Honda. I built a little dolly that has carpet on it. I slide the dolly onto the roof of the car. The dolly just reaches the end of the boat sides so there is no room to attach the mast. Maybe I should redesign the dolly.

Thanks,

John Stevens

[Guest Oyster]

A picture would also help of your existing setup. Sometimes many of us, in our own projects, can't see the forrest for the trees while we are in the mist of them, and all it takes is a passerby to say hey did you notice such and such in that limb, if you know what I mean. It may be a minor adjustment. I am not sure of the dolly that fits on top of your car. Here is a dolly that carries boat, and all of the accessories that goes with it, that a fellow built for his 10 dinghy. For reference, its listed on this thread. Maybe depending on how you are now rigged, you can do somthing simular allowing your mast to even fit along side of the boat. Many of those Yakama roof racks extend past the sides of a vehicle, a bit, and adds some extra carrying capacity.

http://www.messing-about.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4562

[Andrew_Butchart]

The mast is around 14 feet. It's a cat rig with no stays. The sail is a sock type. I drive a Honda Accord with the boat on top of the car and I have been tying a line around the mirror and on hanging out the back door. I slide the mast through the lines and secure it with bungie. Is there a better way to attach it to the car? I'd really like to have it in two parts. I saw a guy with an aluminum mast that came apart and was wondering how to do it with the carbon fiber.

John

On my Toyota Echo (which I have a roof rack for) I added some tie-downs at the front and back - see blurry picture below. For the front tie-down' date=' I used the bolts that hold the fenders to the front grill to also hold down a metal loop that I tie the front of the boat to. I open the hood, hook on the ropes, close the hood and then tie them off to the front of the boat. At the back, I added eye-bolts to the outside of the trailer hitch.

When car-topping anything long, your main secure points are on top of the vehicle itself - I strap things down quite securely using ratchet straps. Without a roof rack, you can probably run them through the door opening and then close the doors on them. The attachment at the front and back - especially at the front - keeps the rig from turning sideways on you.

What I'm trying to get to is that if you can secure your mast to the front of the car to keep it from swinging side-to side, just put a red rag on the back as a safety flag and you'll probably be fine without the hassle of having a two piece mast.

[img']http://www.floatingbear.ca/pix/echo002.jpg[/img]

[John Stevens]

Here is the picture of my setup. I think I need to make the dolly wider.

John