Excellent mast and spar making tutorial

[Ray Frechette Jr]

Just in case some of you do not visit the B&B Board I figured I would cross post...

Ran across this mast and spar tutorial and thought others might receive benefit from it so I thought I would share it.

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Solid-Boat-Mast

[Daniel Gross]

Thanks Ray,

Bookmarked it for further reading.

Dan

[PAR]

Lovely stuff, if you want to do things that way.

Here's a traditional hollow mast construction section. Very simple, very strong, both the laps and the brads are just to help align things as the glue dries. This particular section has about an 18% wall.

[Howard]

Thats an interesting concept. And traditional? First I've ever heard of it. (Sorry......you are working with amateurs).

So how would that stack up in strength and stiffness vs. a birdsmouth? And how are the interior triangle wedges glued in place?

[Ray Frechette Jr]

Strength and stiffness would likely compare  favorably to Birdsmouth.

You glue triangle pieces to staves and let cure to act as shelves before gluing up whole mast.

Advantages to making a box section mast that you round down rather than a Birdsmouth is it is a whole lot easier to glue the whole shebang up  and Far elss floppy.

The staves in a box section resist sagging and getting out of plane much much better than birdsmouth staves.

Birdsmouth allows use of cuttoff scraps far better than Box construction does though.

Waste shavings and sawdust between the two is fairly comparable.

[Howard]

Assuming you can live with the looks of a square box, is there a reason to fully trim the corners to round? Perhaps hit it with a 1/2" or 3/4" round over bit instead? They can be tapered just the same as a round one can. And those flat sides would be great for mounting stuff like sail track, cleats, etc.

And as for strength, is there any advantage to rectangles? Say a square corner mast 3" x 5" vs. one that is 4" square? Aside from windage.....it would seem the box would be stronger in the fore and aft configuration, which I think is where you would want it for an unstayed mast.

[Ray Frechette Jr]

The corners do indeed add strength and a square mast will be stronger than a  round one.

But ideally you don't ant any mast at all disturbing wind on the luff.  A round mast disturbs the wind less than a square or rectangle one does.

An oval one is better still.

And a tear drop shaped one better yet.