Mast Repair

[<Phokai>]

Does anybody know if a broken mast can be repair? My mast broke on the bottom part near the boom.

[sukhdev]

hmm...obvious answer would be its unsafe,especially if its a 100% carbon mast.

Given your nick i guess $ is a constraint, so maybe you can look to find a bottom piece. If its a Powerex or Sailworks mast we do sell just the top or bottom piece..that could be a solution. You may also want to get in touch with our repair wizard Ben, he keeps odds and ends and might be able to help you.

I have seen repairs done but a repaired mast would not be what i would want to use on a strong north east day offshore. email us with more details and we will try to help, another option would be a used mast.

[<Phokai>]

If I use a longer mast than is recommended should I saw off from the top or the bottom? It is an old mast. I have different people tell me different things, does anybody know? I want to use a 490 in a 460 (its all cos of $$$ so no choice).

[sukhdev]

Mr P,

if you saw off the top you may face one problem, most sails have a plug into which the sail top fits in, cut far down enough and the plug won't fit.

I have several times sawed off the bottom, for example 2 years ago I found that using a 520 (stiffer) mast on a Sailworks 9.0 XT2 race sail gave me much better power than the recommended 490 so I sawed part of the 520 bottom off to make it fit perfectly.  I'm guessing here but intuitively sawing off the bottom would somehow retain more of the overall bend.

[<Mr P>]

Sukhdev, thanks for your help. I never thought of the mast tip issue! Ok, if i saw part of the bottom off do I have to like reinforce that bit or something? I'm worried sawing might make some kind of stress and cause it to break.

[sukhdev]

quote: Sukhdev, thanks for your help. I never thought of the mast tip issue! Ok, if i saw part of the bottom off do I have to like reinforce that bit or something? I'm worried sawing might make some kind of stress and cause it to break.  

no worries, you don't need to reinforce the sawed off area.