Mast Repair

Hello,

my name is Joey. I manage a 98 ft Sparkman Stevens design in Miami. She's quite old (58') with a huge Sitka Spruce mast. Anyway the reason I'm posting is that we had an accident and broke the mast just above the lower spreader. Nobody in Miami seems to know what to do and my job is on the line. I need help please. I need to either repair or replace the mast. The owner would consider replacing with aluminum but it seems like the wrong material for this boat.

[Ian McColgin]

I'm not too surprised that not all areas of the nation have the resourses. But whether building anew or repairing, it's only big, not strange. Scantlings are well established and all that.

If the stick is in otherwise good condition, whether hollow or solid, whether round or rectangular, a scarfed in repair is perfectly easy. Good quality sitka spruce, a knowledge of epoxy and the ability to make matching 8:1 or better yet 12:1 bevels are about all that's needed.

You should take the mast apart a bit, getting all the gear and track off and scrape her down to the wood, to make sure there is no rot or damage elsewhere. A break at the lowers says, off-hand and without adequate information, that this could be a hollow mast with a compression block that held moist ure and led to rot. So get her apart enough to survey and compare the costs of repairing versus replacing.

The wonderful schooner Reveler came back from Florida needing such extensive mainmast repair that the boatyard general contracting the job put out a bid on a new spar. I believe that it turned out a Cape Cod group was capable. The new stick surely looks good. The problem is shipping a mast down there. It could be cheaper even if you use boatwrights from New England to ship the people and wood to Florida rather than figure out how to ship a long pole.

I am not sure of the commersialism ethics here. I've no personal stake in this. If you wish to contact me directly as to who did Reveler's mast and/or whose yard she's in, in case that information helps you find a suitable mast builder, perhaps Brion can pass my e-mail address to me or otherwise arrange the information.

G'luck

Ian