The biggest problem with a DIY mast on a bigger boat is that the engineering gets exponentially more complex. If you pay an competent engineer to come up with a section and layup schedule, then what you have left is to build it while maintaining a level of quality that ensures that the finished mast will be what it was designed to be, not something less.
That second task is doable (but certainly not easy!) by a skilled worker, if the process is carefully thought out. The methods and processes used by various commercial spar builders probably won't work for a one-off DIY mast, yet the exact details of what will work are not written down in any manual or book you can buy.
I succeeded on the first try in building a 42' carbon rotating wing mast(4.5" X 9" section) for a multihull which still sails. But this was only done after months of research into various materials and constrction methods and dozens of test layups and destructive testing to ensure that my proposed methods were sound and repeatable.(OK, many of the test layups were failures, but it WAS my first try at a complete mast.) It turned out that all of the components of the project are interdependent; for instance, the molding method chosen determined the type of reinforcement used, but the type of reinforcement determined the molding method which determined both the compaction method and the resin system's work time requirements. The resin system in turn determined the cure schedule and tooling requirements.
Most builders are actually not prepared to invest what is really required to make this somewhat tricky process work; you have to design a manufacturing process, not just a mast, and you have to get it right.
Jimbo
06-06-2005, 11:30 PM
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