8 meter masts for junk sails

  • 17 Nov 2023 18:41
    Reply # 13280860 on 13280746

    Sorry Poli meant sleeving not sleeping

  • 17 Nov 2023 18:38
    Reply # 13280858 on 13280746

    Thanks Pol that’s all good information. As my boat is very lightweight I think a wooden mast might be too heavy in the bow but I’ll look into it. I found an unstayed Liberty mast in Essex going for a good price but to have it delivered to me was in excess of £450 so madly expensive. I’m wondering about getting the mast I found cut in two to make delivery cost realistic and then sleeping it at the joint. 

  • 17 Nov 2023 17:49
    Reply # 13280832 on 13280746

    Hello Bill,

    A solid timber mast could be a good way to go? They have many proponents for lots of good reasons. I would recommend that you track down your local one-man-band sawmiller, who (maybe like me)  will have a Wood-Mizer mobile band-saw and the attitude to life that can get most things done with wood.. The mill needs a small extension, as they are 6.3m without it, but quite a few do. I would be happy to oblige but I think we may be a day's ride apart and the distance may make it a costly stick.

    If you look on your favourite search engine for "mobile sawmill" followed by your county or location...

    What I do with mine is to cut a beam of the length and outside square dimensions required and then fiddle about a good bit to get it tapered for the right distance and, for a big one, I can do the taper as well. It is important to choose a nice piece without big knots, of course, but the job works well. I did our own one at 42', (not a grown stick but made up out of 21/2" laminations) and a couple of others shorter, one of which was milled 8 sided and tapered, cut up the middle and glued back together again after being partially hollowed out.

    Many on here would say that an ali tube, possibly with a wooden extension, is also a way of doing it. Streetlamp pole suppliers may not be too keen on selling you one for a mast, but if you gen up on what's needed on this site and make enquiries for a lamp post, not a boat mast, you might be able to use one of those?

    Email me if you want any more help with finding a sawyer down your way.

    Good luck!

    Pol.

  • 17 Nov 2023 14:51
    Message # 13280746

    I plan to make a junk sail for my Liberty 22. Making the sail is a project I can undertake, but what to get for a mast and where to get it is proving a fruitless task. I bwonder if anyone knows how to source a mast.

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