Mild Steel Mast Furniture, scantlings compared to bronze

[Bott]

Hello,

I am re-doing the rig on my gaff cutter and came to the conclusion that I need a different arrangement of lugs on the mast band where the shrouds attach. Specifically, I want another lug added to the aft side for the swifter shrouds to attach.

The current band is 6" in diameter, 1.25" tall, and ~5/16" thick. The local welders I talked to were reluctant to try to weld/braze a new lug on the existing one, because I don't know what the specific alloy of the band is now.

So I am thinking of making my own out of mild steel, and have found a good starting point from heavy-duty pipe hangers, mild steel (a36 I believe), with basically the same dimensions as the bronze band but 1/4" thick. Then I can have lugs welded on from there, whatever dimensions I need (probably thicker just to have a good landing area on the band itself).

Does this sounds like a workable solution, scantlings-wise? The boat is ~20,000 lbs with ~800 sq ft of working sail. The band is also well supported underneath by 4 bolster blocks. From there, I would either have the piece galvinized or maybe powder coated. But its going to be ~40' in the air pretty far from the salt water.

Thanks for any opinions shared!

Eric

[Jim Fulton]

1. 40 feet isn't really very far away from the salt water, particularly in a blow.

2. I wouldn't trust powder coating in that application. The smallest crack or chip will let moisture (and salt) get to the underlying metal and then the whole business will peel off. By contrast, a good galvanizing job will, to some extent, be self-healing.

Jim Fulton

[Bott]

Thanks, I've been talking with other people about coatings and they've basically said the same thing. Galvanizing it is, plus proper paint.