Well, the day after I get my centerboard fixed and installed, a nasty demasting ended up puncturing a hole in the side of my mast. (I wanted to throw the whole boat over the hoover dam when I saw the damage)



Luckily, my hobie mentor has located a replacement for (hopefully) not that much, so I'm wondering what to do with the old mast once I strip the hardware off of it. I was given the idea to try and take it to an aluminum recycling place. I was wondering how much it weighed, as this is one of the determinants of its value.



Another question is, what could I do with a broken mast? Is there anything useful that I could use it for?

What kind of mast is it?

Where's the hole located in the mast?

What's the size of the hole and is there any bend?



It might be salvagable !

Its a h17 mast.



The hole is probably 1" x 2" but the surrounding area is heavily dented. Its about 6" up from the base of the mast. There is no visible bending. The thing fell straight to the side and hit the jib swivel cleat.



I personally wouldn't want to sail with it.

Maugan,



You won't get much from an aluminum recycling facility - probably considerably less than $10. The masts are so expensive because of the length and straightness of the extrusion and the process to make/anodize it...not the material involved.



I've got a friend who came up with (or at least used) a neat idea to use pieces of old masts as regatta trophies. It wouldn't be worth it to ship it but if you are nearby, we (I) would give you more than a recycler would. Where are you located?

I'm in Raleigh North Carolina.



That stinks, I was thinking about how heavy it is, and comparing it to the value of the aluminum cans, I figured its right around 700 can's worth

send me an email when you get a chance (see my user profile)...we're not too far away.



You sure have had some bum luck!

I'm guessing you've got a comp tip. So, it sounds like it's finished. I've got an old 16 mast with a similar problem halfway between the base and tang. I've thought about trying a repair using epoxy and carbon fiber, but haven't tried it because there is a bend as well. The bend was too high to turn it over, cut it off and put a comp tip on the opposite end.



I wouldn't melt it down, since mast stock could always come in handy for something. It may not be apparent now, but as soon as you get rid of it, you'll know.

Tell me about it... *sigh*



Oh well, the last of the active damage repair should be finished, then I go on to preventative maintenance as soon as the new tramp arrives.



Oh, and the comp tip is fine.



Its the alum extrusion thats ... fubar'd.

Sounds as if you were sailing with the stepping pin in?



NOt a good idea as it can cause more damage, but not letting the base of the mast swing free of the step, and provides a lever point while the mast is falling.



Good luck.

well we left the stepping pin in because we weren't sailing. We were actually tensioning the shrouds because I had just installed the furler. Robert was using the trapeze handle to put lateral force on mast so I could bump the shroud down one more hole.



Then....



*pow* trapeze handle breaks. In 98 degree weather, we both had sweaty hands, so the shroud slips out of my hand easily, and the mast comes tumbling down.



If the pin wasn't in there, it probably would have broken the comp-tip or my hull.

One thing I,d like to see added beyond the classified section of catsailor with mainly boats for sale would be a seperate page just for parts sails hardward and misc items for sale .--beachwheels etc.

-We often see boats with multiple sails and extras with it ,--the owner would get much more selling them seperately and the buyers ,--probabley retrofitting or restoring an older boat on a budget would have a great ready source of parts sails ,-gear ,etc. -



-You may take the mast and cut off the lower 8 inches and refit the base ,--idealy someone would recut or just refit a 17 sail to retrofit on an older existing cat platform . --just one idea suggestion . --

Also remember some of the home builders of A cats using mast sections as crossbeams ,--the mast track makes an ideal holder for the trampoline to side in .

Someone may just want a an interesting flagpole ,--{price one out -whew } -or it would be great to see a restaurant theme based on cat sailing like the one in Corpus Cristy ,-or Worrell Restaurant in Va Bch . with all types of photos , sails and half hulls through the wall .--fun stuff. --Great theme for one on the waterfront . -I like the Irish Pub themes and micro brew themes ,but there are almost too many of them .-Importing and decorating theme restaurants has become a large biz enterprize .



Have fun and be carefull with the new one ---or not ,--maybe there will be a market for them in the near future as catsailing restaurant themes become the lattest craze ,-

-just joking a little ,-have fun , sail safe and fast .

Carl

I feel your pain brother. Spent the past year going completely through my '80 Prindle 18. New tramp, sail repairs, rudder adjustments and realignment, thorough oxidation and waxing of hulls - the boat was restored and beautiful. She got tumbled on land in a storm a couple weeks ago - 75 mph winds. Really, more than tumbled, picked up and thrown 50 yards. Mast broken in half, top of mast went through port hull, both cross bars twisterd - ouch! amazingly, new tramp came through without a scratch.



Anyway, mast with diamond wires and halyard are going into ground right where she died as flagpole memorial. Will use halyard to raise Old Glory and will swivel the mast to catch ring. May even leave the downhaul on to keep flag at attention.



New-used boat is coming this afternoon. Have heard comments on this forum about securing boats on beach by burying cinder block tied with rope. Any suggestions for securing boat at waters edge on lawn - too rocky to dig. Right now just planning on banging some steel posts in and connecting tie downs. Any better ideas?

Screw in a couple of mobile home tie downs/anchors. Then use some old mainsheet to tie the anchors to the dolphin striker. In heavy winds the boat might "hop" but it won't fly away.



Use this when I'm at regatta sites -- I've seen a strom come in an trash 12 other boats but mine was just sitting there like it was a spectator from the weather channel.



Hope it helps.



Steve

At the '93 Hobie 20 Nationals, Carleton Tucker and I ran down and took our masts down when waterspouts appeared near shore. (The charter boat racers did not).

More recently I wondered if it was good enough to rotate the mast 90 degrees and cleat it there: this would certainly reduce the side force, and the boat might not tend to pitchpole. Before thinking of doing this, my wooden A-class in this little thumbnail pix was blown over twice- breaking spreaders both times. Apparently my tiedowns were inadequate.

Catcobbler

US-21, US-167

Why not cut off the bad area and the comptip, paint it, put a pulley on top and use it/sell it as a floagpole? Have you piced flagpoles lately? A 20 footer is over $200.

I like the trophy idea too. Or maybe crossbars for an outrigger canoe.?



Sorry about your woes. I have a Nacra 5.5 Uni mast in my basement broken exactly in half with no other dents or scratches. Each piece is 15 feet. I keep thinking I will use these for two A-Class boat crossbars (7.5 feet each)....



Steve

Hahahaha, I like the flagpole ideas... unfortunately, I live in an apartment and have really no use for one, and I'd feel really bad trying to pass off a makeshift "flagpole" on somebody else



The crossbeam idea perks my interest. In my club, we have an old Highlander 21, and a windspeed 15 cat just laying around collecting pollen. Someone made mention that we should try and convert the two boats into a trimaran. Maybe that would be possible with the broken mast

Instead of a flag up the main halyard, how about putting blocks on the spreaders and running halyards to haul up and down the starting flags for races. With the new starting flag sequence this would work great and be really visable. This would only work for land-based starting line like we have in Dunedin.

the 17 mast has no spreaders



It should, but doesn't.

Maybe I could use it for securing a forward tramp. How long is it?

After an enlightening weekend at the coast and much education on the physical properties of aluminium, I have decided to hold on to the punctured mast.



My new mast, while perfectly straight while sailing, has a 3 degree bend in it while not under shroud tension. We set up sawhorses and got a cement bucket full of rocks and water and a centre-block and ratched it right on the bend with a bit of success. Then came the removal of the old broken comptip. It had snapped off and left just the portion that is sunk inside the aluminium extrusion left inside, and to make matters worse, it was sealed with epoxy.



So I went to the hardware store and bought a heat gun that could go up to 1000deg F. Wasn't hot enough, after thouroughly heating the alum, the epoxy was coming out but not quickly enough to pull the whole piece out.... it was splintering and shredding under the vice grips. So we went sailing on the 18sx with 4 people in 20-25mph winds, which was fun, and wet, and destructive



When we got back, we found the propane torch, and decided to flambay the sucker. 5 minutes with that torch and we had a charred comp-tip stump.



The old mast, we decided, can be fixed with a welded stiffening plate over the puncture. Its below the sail track, so I don't have to worry about that. So now I'll have two masts that aren't exactly in a state of perfection, but two working masts are better than none.



Thanks for all the help guys.