Fiberglass mast

[Fanie]

Hi guys, thanks for your feedback and patience

Just working on my own perceptions here. The tri I'm working on's 4m beams are glassed in a triangular shape. They bend only slightly with my fat butt on the centre and the ends supported. There's only a foam core in it. The stiffness of this made me wonder if it would be usable as a mast.

The tri's mast is allu, 4 extrusions into one, but it still seems too bendy. I could rivit the lot of them so they won't slide in one another thus resisting to bend.

Again on the glass and allu mast. I wasn't thinking of adding resin inside the allu, instead having the glass wound stiffly around the allu to give it body. This is not for the tri though, but for another app. I'm sure there are masts available, just not sure at what price. Someone did let fall a figure on a mast somewhere and I won't sell the house to buy the mast. Making it from allu and glass may not be as stiff but then it may become affordable and I can live with the extra weight and thickness.

[fofo]

If a person wanted to build a mast out of glass, an internal section stiffener could be used. Maybe a hexagonally configured web structure, with the web being constructed out of ply and the fiberglass layers acting as a continuous chord.

[Omeron]

If one has a lot of time and skills but not have the resources to buy a carbon or aluminum mast for a 39 footer, would it be feasible to construct a hollow, tapered mast out of suitable wood? And how would that compare with a common aluminum spar of constant crossection in terms of weight, performance?
I can already hear you say, if you dont have the money to buy the mast,how will you buy the boat? But lets say it is a wooden classic, and would be fun to have a real wooden mast.

[fofo]

Laminating long,mitered,tapered rips is a pretty straightforward method of hollow wooden mast construction. If you were to go with a free-standing wooden mast of larger section, you could lower the c.g. compared to a stayed aluminum rig and increase the performance of your boat.

[fofo]

Laminating long,mitered,tapered rips is a pretty straightforward method of hollow wooden mast construction. If you were to go with a free-standing wooden mast of larger section, you could lower the c.g. compared to a stayed aluminum rig and increase the performance of your boat.

[rwatson]

Re wooden masts - if you go back to Eric Sponbergs site (a few posts ago) , and read his very informative details on mast construction, there are details about building of a wooden mast with a fibreglass laminate, built by boatbuilders in very basic conditions.
This did cost a lot less, and perform better than aluminium masts. But, as each mast has to be designed for the individual boat, design costs would feature heavily as a consideration.