In article .com,
danm wrote:
Thank you Roy. Are your wooden blocks all flat sided, or are they
fitted to the shape (at least at the forward end) of the mast?

There's two blocks -- front and back. The inside of both are shaped
to fit the mast contour.

We put the mast up once in the spring and take it down in the fall.
In the spring, we apply a liberal amount of silicone over all the
joints and gaps to make it (more or less) watertight. In the fall, we
need to slice all that silicone off with a knife. If you're planning
on trailering the boat (i.e. putting the mast up and down a lot),
you'll probably not want to do the silicone thing.