Gougeon Wing Mast Plans

[HydroNick]

I know this is a topic that has been beaten nearly to death; however, I have ordered plans for a Shuttleworth 8m Arrow. John Shuttleworth indicated that I could get Gougeon Wing Mast plans from Gougeon, now WEST. West gave me a contact for Georg (sic) Thomas who now distributes the plans, that bounced. Eric Sponberg was kind enough to give me an alternate email address for Georg from which I've had no response. I have also contacted the North West Multihull Association as they noted that one of the Gougeon Brothers appears there on occasions.

Because of all these dead ends and because none of the discussions on the forum (as far as I could see) actually tell you where to get the plans: Does anyone know where I'd get the Gougeon Wing Mast plans?

Thanks

[tspeer]

Instead of Gougeon, you might try Rob Denny. He has his own method for making masts.

[steff]

Hi Nick,
did you find meanwhile the plans - if so I would be also interested in a source. many thanks.

[HydroNick]

Thanks Tom and no, nothing yet Steff.

[Graham Murray]

Contact J R Watson (@Gougeons?), ask him to put you in contact with the Sergey Korolyov of wooden wing-mast design, Kurt D....., the man that a certain famous trimaran designer refers to as The Mast Engineer, (I believe Kurt is the actual designer/engineer of the stress-form masts).

[rob denney]

Thanks, Tom.

I am building a wing mast from a pair of vac bagged panels. It is unstayed, but a stayed one would be much simpler. I've built a lot of masts, but this is the first one using this technique, which should be by far the easiest.

I can sell you plans for this for $AUS1,000. Plans will include the track, gooseneck, hounds and any other fittings, plus all the email advice you want.

The first thing you need is a spec so you can work out the materials cost. The designer should supply this, or our engineer will do it for $Aus1,000. The mast will be easier to build if the chord is small enough, or the core thick enough that a sheer web is not required.

If you don't mind a little extra weight, want to save the engineering cost or prefer to build in wood, the Gougeon plans are a better way to go, assuming you can track down the alloy track extrusion that holds the trailing edge together. Let me know if you can't find them, I know a couple of people who have built them and may still have the plans.

regards,

rob

[Gary Baigent]

For what it is worth Hydro, here is the plan of Flash Harry's 30 foot wing mast. It is a simple and inexpensive construction of tensioned 3mm ply over frames attached to a 4mm ply I beam and is 22 years old now - and has suffered a hard life with absolutely no problems. The mast with halyards and rigging weighs 20 kgs. You could build an extended version for your Shuttleworth and it would do the job. Carbon uni-directionals are used in the high load and bending areas, that is the hounds beak fitting, wrapped halfway round the wing and in the thickest of the chord section running up and down the halfway area between hounds and base. If you want a straight luff, just reverse the leading and trailing edges. The alloy sail track is again a simple but effective extrusion used for curtains (you have to bench saw off the too wide flanges) from Alcan here in NZ. You could find the equivalent in your country. Cheers.

[HydroNick]

Again, thanks for all of the information and help. Once it looks like finishing the boat is in the realm of possibility, I will make the contacts suggested in this thread.

Also, I think I shall get rid of the HydroNick moniker

[Timothy]

Hi Rob I talked to you a couple of years ago about new masts for my Freedom 40 but at the time you were still developing the process for building carbon fiber masts that would be affordable. I would like to know more about building a freestanding wing from two vacuum bagged panels. Did this come out of the work you did with the kiss system? Could you use resin infusion for the panels? How do you design the mast so that it tends to bend more readily along the long axis to flatten the sail? I know that Eric Sponberg used tubular or box like structural elements with non load bearing fiberglass fairings for leading and trailing edges partly to make it easier to predict mast bend. But I think I read that on his latest mast to reduce weight he used an elliptical section with the wall laminate adjusted for bend. Others have used luff pockets on tapered tubes. I believe Team Philips used panels joined with flexible membranes and a complicated sail track arrangement that collapsed into itself when under compression. You mentioned cores . I think I also read that for wall thicknesses of free standing carbon masts there is no weight saving using cores as apposed to using solid laminate of a greater thickness as with no compression loads buckling is not a problem. I have as yet not replaced my masts and the more I read the more discouraged I get that I can build them myself and achieve the weight reduction and efficiency I am hoping for. I would be interested as to how your new mast turns out and weather or not a home builder using your plans might expect to build a mast close to the weight of an autoclaved one. I am fortunate that I can enlist the help of my friend and next door neighbor here in Thailand who is an expert in composites and has worked all over the world setting up production schedules. Right now he is doing the new infused carbon F18 hulls at Cobra.

[HydroNick]

Through another route Nick Barlow in the UK was also suggested as a mast designer. He is part of the SailRocket Team. Steff, still zippo on actual Gougeon Wing Mast plans.

Again, thanks to those that responded.

Nick

[cavalier mk2]

Dick Newick might sell you a wing mast plan. I think he calls them Stressforms. While he says building one is complicated he was willing to talk about them.

[steff]

Found some notes on the shuttleworth website - Mike Reppy built a mast in glass/foam/carbon for a 30 ft trimaran based on the design of a barlow wing mast. Overall it seems to rather difficult and depending on the expected result not worth the money/effort to built a wing mast - as I have been told. IN my view a wing mast is still the perfect option, however I may also choose the AL route, since I am not patient enough to go through a long learning curve.

[catsketcher]

Dicks wing masts are strip plank not stressed ply. The New Zealand Newick owners like them but having built the shell of one (but not complete it) I would recommend an alloy mast. It takes a lot of time and you won't save any money.

Jeff Schionning used to sell wing mast designs but all of his cats seem to have alloys masts now.

I think fixed masts are faster as they fell a lot less liable to falling over so you worry less and sail harder. Verbatim got rid of its rotating stick and went non rotating.

cheers

Phil

[cavalier mk2]

Some of the Newick masts were stressed ply (I'm looking at an old study plan), strip or stress they have less of a learning curve for most than an all composite layup.

[HydroNick]

Thanks again, yes I remember that Schionning sold mast plans. My recollection is that you could have purchased an alloy mast for the price of their plans! I may be a bit out; regardless, their mast plans were significantly more expensive than any of the smaller multihull boat plans that I was considering at the time.

I guess that I am also hoping that there's a foam carbon plan out there as well as the Gougeon plans!

Regards

Nick