When we bought the boat there were only a few wedges in place, not enough
for proper support. I understand how the SparTite system works but is
there another system that would work? Say just filling the partner with
silicon, would this allow to much flexing? How firm is the SparTite after
it sets?, does it allow some movement or does it harden as a solid rubber?

Bill, http://www.billangiep2.blinkz.com/

BillP wrote:
When we bought the boat there were only a few wedges in place, not enough
for proper support. I understand how the SparTite system works but is
there another system that would work? Say just filling the partner with
silicon, would this allow to much flexing? How firm is the SparTite after
it sets?, does it allow some movement or does it harden as a solid rubber?

Bill, http://www.billangiep2.blinkz.com/

One of the guys in my YC seals the mast opening with a piece of line
jammed into place (ater adjusting the stays to give him proper rake),
then coats it with silicone. Since we have to drop the mast every year
for haulout, it seems to work well for him

"BillP" wrote in message
lkaboutboats.com...
When we bought the boat there were only a few wedges in place, not enough
for proper support. I understand how the SparTite system works but is
there another system that would work? Say just filling the partner with
silicon, would this allow to much flexing? How firm is the SparTite after
it sets?, does it allow some movement or does it harden as a solid rubber?

Bill, http://www.billangiep2.blinkz.com/


Filling the are with silicon probably would provide a good job since
the silicon wouln't necessarily fill the entire area.

Spartite is great stuff. Yhere are two varieties. One is pretty firm, the
other is less so. I have the form one. It has been in place for 5 years
now with no leaks or problems

Doug
s/v CAllista

"WaIIy" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 15 Jan 2005 14:47:58 GMT, "Jim," wrote:

BillP wrote:
When we bought the boat there were only a few wedges in place, not
enough
for proper support. I understand how the SparTite system works but is
there another system that would work? Say just filling the partner with
silicon, would this allow to much flexing? How firm is the SparTite
after
it sets?, does it allow some movement or does it harden as a solid
rubber?

Bill, http://www.billangiep2.blinkz.com/

One of the guys in my YC seals the mast opening with a piece of line
jammed into place (ater adjusting the stays to give him proper rake),
then coats it with silicone. Since we have to drop the mast every year
for haulout, it seems to work well for him

Which brings me to a question. I know next to nothing about sailboats
and I notice in a marina near me (Cleveland) that some of the sailboats
take down the mast for winter and some don't.

There seems to be no pattern to this as their are saiboats from 20 ft to
40ft +.

Is there a particular reason to take the mast down?

It is strange. Some marinas require that you take the mast down when the
boat
is on the hard, some don't. Where I live (Baltimore/Annapolis area), I know
of no marina that requires it. I am in a boat related business and visit
dozens of marinas. None have any policy regarding masts during storage.
I have heard that marinas further north sometimes have such a policy,
but in the Watertown, NY area up into Kingston, ONT I came across
dozens of marinas with boats on the hard with masts up. I can think
of no substantive reason to require masts be unstepped during storage.
Perhaps in hurricane prone areas to the south it may be a good idea.
We have gone through 2 hurricanes up here in the last 5 years with no
boats toppled. In fairness, the winds didn't get much above 60 MPH.
We stayed in the water for both with no damage. The marina was more
concerned about the stands beong eroded due to runoff rather than
wind load on masts.

Doug
s/v Callista

OOPS! I misstyped. What I mean't to say was:

"Filling the area with silicon probably would NOT provide a good job since
the silicon wouln't necessarily fill the entire area."

Actually, I doubt if sillicon would be stiff wough to provide proper support
anyway.

Sorry,
DOug

"Doug Dotson" dougdotson@NOSPAMcablespeedNOSPAMcom wrote in message
...
"BillP" wrote in message
lkaboutboats.com...
When we bought the boat there were only a few wedges in place, not
enough
for proper support. I understand how the SparTite system works but is
there another system that would work? Say just filling the partner with
silicon, would this allow to much flexing? How firm is the SparTite after
it sets?, does it allow some movement or does it harden as a solid
rubber?

Bill, http://www.billangiep2.blinkz.com/


Filling the are with silicon probably would provide a good job since
the silicon wouln't necessarily fill the entire area.

Spartite is great stuff. Yhere are two varieties. One is pretty firm, the
other is less so. I have the form one. It has been in place for 5 years
now with no leaks or problems

Doug
s/v CAllista

WaIIy wrote:
On Sat, 15 Jan 2005 14:47:58 GMT, "Jim," wrote:


BillP wrote:

When we bought the boat there were only a few wedges in place, not enough
for proper support. I understand how the SparTite system works but is
there another system that would work? Say just filling the partner with
silicon, would this allow to much flexing? How firm is the SparTite after
it sets?, does it allow some movement or does it harden as a solid rubber?

Bill, http://www.billangiep2.blinkz.com/


One of the guys in my YC seals the mast opening with a piece of line
jammed into place (ater adjusting the stays to give him proper rake),
then coats it with silicone. Since we have to drop the mast every year
for haulout, it seems to work well for him


Which brings me to a question. I know next to nothing about sailboats
and I notice in a marina near me (Cleveland) that some of the sailboats
take down the mast for winter and some don't.

There seems to be no pattern to this as their are saiboats from 20 ft to
40ft +.

Is there a particular reason to take the mast down?
In our case it's because we haul with a crane, and nobody wants their
mast to tangle with the crane boom.

"BillP" wrote in message
lkaboutboats.com...
When we bought the boat there were only a few wedges in place, not
enough
for proper support. I understand how the SparTite system works but is
there another system that would work? Say just filling the partner with
silicon, would this allow to much flexing? How firm is the SparTite after
it sets?, does it allow some movement or does it harden as a solid rubber?

Bill, http://www.billangiep2.blinkz.com/

Bill,
I used a system that I had seen on small racing keelboats - have a look at a
J-24.

I made a template of the deck opening and of the mast profile.

I put the mast in place and adjusted the rigging (but not too tight) so as
to position the mast with proper rake. I then measured just where the mast
was with respect to the deck opening.

I then made a plug for the mast opening by laminating some plywood - I
included a larger flange on the top so the finished unit would not fall
through. I then cut an opening in the plug for the mast (using bandsaw). I
made the plug and the mast opening slightly oversize so that the mast could
move a bit - no need to have it too tight. Then sawed the plug in half - Put
aft section in first - step mast then push in forward half.

Cost is nominal - just some plywood & glue plus a coat of varnish and mast
always goes back in same position.

On 16 Jan 2005 12:04:04 -0600, Dave wrote:

On Sat, 15 Jan 2005 15:29:11 GMT, WaIIy said:

Is there a particular reason to take the mast down?

Sure. The marina gets to charge you for it. So if they can get away with
requiring it it's more dollars in their pockets.

Reminds me of a situation on City Island. A few years ago the State EPA came
through and fined all the marinas who were letting owners paint their own
boat bottoms, claiming it violated rules relating to pesticides. So the
marinas started to require the work to be done by the marina. EPA later
acknowledged that its interpretation of the law had been wrong, but the
marinas found the rule profitable and have kept it in effect.

My winter storage yard will do it any way I want. I always have the
mast stored inside because I don't fancy moisture freezing in the
Navtec termination fittings.

I have had to replace swaged 1x19 shrouds on other boats half the age
of Gjoa.



Rodney Myrvaagnes NYC J36 Gjo/a


Capsizing under chute, and having the chute rise and fill without tangling, all while Mark and Sally are still behind you

"WaIIy" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 15 Jan 2005 14:47:58 GMT, "Jim," wrote:

BillP wrote:
When we bought the boat there were only a few wedges in place, not
enough
for proper support. I understand how the SparTite system works but is
there another system that would work? Say just filling the partner with
silicon, would this allow to much flexing? How firm is the SparTite
after
it sets?, does it allow some movement or does it harden as a solid
rubber?

Bill, http://www.billangiep2.blinkz.com/

One of the guys in my YC seals the mast opening with a piece of line
jammed into place (ater adjusting the stays to give him proper rake),
then coats it with silicone. Since we have to drop the mast every year
for haulout, it seems to work well for him

Which brings me to a question. I know next to nothing about sailboats
and I notice in a marina near me (Cleveland) that some of the sailboats
take down the mast for winter and some don't.

There seems to be no pattern to this as their are saiboats from 20 ft to
40ft +.

Is there a particular reason to take the mast down?

I suppose a marina might require this depending on the lifting equipment
they have and also the type of cradles that are commonly used. A lot of
yacht clubs do not have travel-lifts and consequently must use cranes to
remove member boats in areas where it freezes over. As pointed out, its
likely to be impossible to use a crane and sling while the mast is up.
In other cases the owner may want to take his mast down to inspect
rigging/electrical wiring or add equipment.
I never took my mast down while in Ontario as my marina had a travel-lift
and had no issues with this option.

WaIIy wrote:
On Sat, 15 Jan 2005 14:47:58 GMT, "Jim," wrote:
BillP wrote:
When we bought the boat there were only a few wedges in place, not enough
for proper support. I understand how the SparTite system works but is
there another system that would work? Say just filling the partner with
silicon, would this allow to much flexing? How firm is the SparTite after
it sets?, does it allow some movement or does it harden as a solid rubber?

One of the guys in my YC seals the mast opening with a piece of line
jammed into place (ater adjusting the stays to give him proper rake),
then coats it with silicone. Since we have to drop the mast every year
for haulout, it seems to work well for him

Which brings me to a question. I know next to nothing about sailboats
and I notice in a marina near me (Cleveland) that some of the sailboats
take down the mast for winter and some don't.

Regarding the nuisance of taking the mast down, I would not like to have
my boat close to someone who did keeps the mast up, and is toppled over
by a strong wind. (In our harbour, everybody who uses a plastic tarp
lost theirs in the storm we had just before Christmas. I also saw some
tarp supports blown over, not to speak of small craft that were blown
partly from their supports).

Another thing is, if you leave the mast up, you have to loosen the
stays and shrouds anyway to prevent the stress on the hull from the
shortening of wire in cold, so the additional nuisance of taking the
whole thing out is not so big. And makes it easiedr to survey the whole
thing before the next season.

All cranes in my area can lift yachts with the mast up (provoding the
aft stays are removed), so that is not an impossibility. It also seems
that there are no regulations against keeping the mast up. If I were an
insurance official, I would make it illegal because of the increased
risks of toppling or stresses on the hlul. After all, the leverage
imposed by a mast is much more than without.
--
Mast wedges and the seal do not seem at all the same thing to me. Wedges
are there to take up stresses, and the seal to prevent leakage. If one
uses wedges instead of Spartite, one can easily change the position of
the mast, as trimming requires, by just moving the wedges. I understand
that this is impossible with Spartite.

Dag Stenberg