The old Dumas hull I'm rebuilding came with three Goldspar masts that have so many holes and epoxy patches that I wil never trust them in a blow. I've had very good luck making masts for my Star 45 with round 6061-T6 aluminum tubing. Does anyone do this? Am I making a mistake? How about cutting down the Goldspar masts and using them for booms?

--Jim Linville #859

Cutting down the goldspar mast for booms is the way to go. They weigh about the same as a sleeved arrow shaft and flex less. At least that is what I have found.

Reichard Kahle
1767

Jim,

Probably the reason more people do not use a round mast is that you cannot use loops to attach the mainsail to the mast. Generally you need to epoxy swages to the back of the mast and trust that they will stay put. Gerhard uses a round mast and he does well with it - keel stepped as well. Paul Proefrock's site has some images of Gerhard's rig. Sail #18 if I remember right.

Scott

Oh yeah!

I'm not just talking about cutting a 72" stick down to three 24" sections. Remove the grooves as well and you will save weight with little loss of strength. Mike Zellanack showed me this years ago and I have done this for every boom since.

RK