Wooden masts for CS 17

[bagneaux]

After researching the forum archives, it seems that builders discourage building wooden masts. I really like wooden masts for esthetic reasons and would prefer having them to aluminum. Are wooden masts a bad idea for the CS 17? One piece masts are not an issue. Racing is out of the question because my boat will be the only sailboat on the lake. I do have the plans in hand, workshop finished and Joubert ply on hand. However, I am having second thoughts about the CS 17 because of the mast issue.

[Gordy Hill]

If you put wooden masts on a CS 17 it would break in half, turn turtle, and sink out of sight. On the other hand it would look great and you probably wouldn't notice any difference 'cept a bit more to lift into place when rigging. It's your boat. Go for it.

[lbrewer]

I think the whole idea behind building a boat in the first place, as opposed to buying one off the shelf, is that you can build it the way you like it.  Many builders prefer wood masts aesthetically over aluminum, including me.  (They sound better at anchor with the wind in the rigging too ) If performance is your main goal in the boat, the aluminum masts called for in the plans give a predictable stiffness that the designer knows will give a predictable and repeatable result.  It is not by far, however, the only way to do it.  I certainly wouldn't change my mind on the design based on that issue.  Heck, I'm building a boat now because I liked the way the mast looked  .  Next one I'll ask how tall to make the mast before I build it though :-[.

If you'll notice on Graham's website, the part that shows pictures of the CS17, Jan's boat is rigged with wooden masts (solid ones).  I don't think he'd use it as an example if he was dead set against using wood there.

Larry

[Frank Hagan]

Graham will probably chime in here soon ... he's having trouble reaching the site with his new ISP; it may be related to what I had them do to get to the site with the old ISP (edit the hosts file).