Gary King wrote:Just to let you know Peter, I plan on using a Spartite substitute like PMC790 (1/3 of the price of spartite but having a higher hardness, more suitable for free standing masts).

                                                         Stavanger, Wednesday

                Problem  with photo album solved

When I recently tried to upload more photos, two days ago, I seemed to hit some size limit. It turned out that each album can only contain 50 photos - that is, each sub-album. All I had to do was to make a new album and add the two photos of Johanna’s new mast coat, on the floor here and on the boat here.

Cheers, Arne

PS: Corection, I thought we had only one  member album so called the others sub-albums. The fact is that we can create a number of albums, so forget this SUB-

Peter Manning wrote:Thanks to everyone who has posted helpful comments on this subject.

David, I have been studying your drawing of the partners which as I said earlier is a little feint. It appears to me that the taper of the cone only goes as far up as the point at which the recess is created to secure the mast coat. The wedges however, have be sufficiently long for the hold down ring to be effective. This seems to suggest that the wedges do not touch the partners from the recess upwards. Is this correct? I ask this because I am thinking of using a urethane compound rather than wedges and would like to know how far up the partners to take it. I was thinking of taking the urethane right to the top of the partners and using the existing hold down ring to prevent any upward movement of the compound even though, as ketil has suggested, the mast should not be greased. If I do this then it seems to me that any sideways pressure exerted by the mast will press on that part of the partners which is weakest i.e. from the mast coat tie off recess upwards. If I finish the urethane just below the recess will I need to have some means of preventing the compound riding up even though it should stick to the mast which is held down by a substantial pin through the foot plate.

Ketil, any observations you may have on this point would be much appreciated.

Hi Peter,

The forces for heeling the boat are more gentle than the pitching forces when sailing against the wind and seas. When I used wedges, I still had to use some sealing/ gluing agent to prevent the mast from moving upwards. I tried to use a bolt, a long 6mm stainless steel, but that bent(!), so sealing agent was the right remedy. On Marie G I have used Spartite, both in the mast step and at the partners, smearing both parts with gear oil SAE 80. The mast show no sign of moving or turning, so it seems to be well mounted to the boat. I hope that lifting it will be not too much of a pantomime, but I am prepared to use compressed air in the mast step to get the mast moving. (Venting hole is drilled and ready). Refitting the mast and sealing/ gluing it in place, I plan to cut a step in the Spartite at the upper outer edge and fill that with a sealing agent. When pulling out the mast of Edmond Dantes, I had to cut away the sealing agent and knock out the wedges, pull out the wedges at the step and that was it, no drama. My thinking is that you sail at lot, and needs to have the mast firmly in place. Lifting it every 2nd or 3rd year could be a lot of work, but it goes on a few hours at worst.

My favorite saying is: Be happy you are born, not everybody are. In this forum it will be: Stop worrying, go sailing.

Good luck and enjoy Malliemack.

Peter Manning wrote:
David, the hole is conical and smooth. The main problem is how to grease the mast and hole without taking the mast out which would require me to remove wires back to the switch panel or cut them near the mast and refix using junction boxes. I always thought you should avoid cutting the vhf cable to reduce potential losses.