Thanks Jeff, but the mast gets too hot to touch hanging horizontal waiting
to be painted. So it's a lot more than a few degrees.

Dennis

Oh Boy. Coefficients of Thermal Expansion!

The several degrees of extra heat captured by the black mast might come
out to something
like a fiftieth or twentieth of inch expansion on a long mast. A bigger
issue might be if
the mast is setup and tuned on a cold Spring day - the temp rise to a hot
Summer day could
be 50 degrees, which might result in an expansion of maybe a part in 2000,
which would be
around half an inch for a long mast. I think I'll ask my rigger if they
take this into
account.

(These number are all SWAGs - Scientific Wild Ass Guesses)


"Bobsprit" wrote in message
...

Dumb people. My friend's Santana 30/30 has a black mast. On hot days we
need to
use sails from a Rhodes 19 to get a proper fit. We usually have to
change the
stays as well because the mast can change more 3' in height.

RB