broken spar replacement

Broke my 22' spar moving boat with it upright, hit a power line. This happened while trying to secure everything from Hurricane Charley.The spar was a 22' piece of scarfed douglas fir, 43 yrs old, the glue joints were in poor condition and the spar was actually in need of replacement.Checked and sitka spruce was $600 including shipping.The local mill says they can give me a nice 4"x4" lodgepole pine with very few pin knots for $25. My concern is weight difference and density difference. The mast is stayed with two shrouds and no spreaders.
Will the pine work, the rig is gaffed and the gaff and boom are on a track and have worked fine all these yrs.???

 

gino,

Sounds like I'm in the wrong business, again. Also sounds like it was time.

And the answer is, "ya, sorta". The 4" by 4" is not a good idea, but will work for a while if you just want to go sailing. You mention glue lines; they did not glue the spar together 40 years ago because they couldn’t find a 4" by 4". I will guess the old one was either a box or a T ? If you want this mast to last 40 years you need to put some effort into it. Best would be to get the best material you can manage, more Doug Fir or Sitka Spruce. If you do not have $600 to buy SS then do your best with what you can afford.

Get the Pine, but in edge grain boards about an inch thick rather than a 4" thick stick. 4" of wood will need roughly 4 years to air dry and stabilize. This is what you want, stability in the moisture content of the wood. One inch material will be fairly dry in a year, if just left well ventilated and sheltered from the sun. Don't stack the boards on top of each other, but place stickers between them at 3' intervals, so the air can get to all four sides. Paint the ends with thick paint as soon as you get them home.

The weight of the Pine will be close to the Doug Fir; the SS would be noticeably lighter and make her a better boat. Use the old spar parts as patterns, bond & seal it completely with epoxy, especially the screw holes for your hardware. She'll last a long time.

All the best, Tad

 

Broken Spar

Thanks for the reply!I just talked to the boats designer and mast builder after I posted, we have been life long friends. His recommendation was to shape another mast out of the 4x4, then have then cut me a 4x4 or 6x6 into 1" pieces and let it air dry while using the green mast, after wood had cured, then make a second mast in the manner u describe. Thanks for the imput!