Home Built Wing Masts

To upchurchmr

Hello Upchurchmr: I think people would kill to get their hands on the Gougeon wing mast plans. It's a near done to death (I was one of the doers) topic on boatdesign but I don't think anyone has posted, or even admitted to having, the plans. Gougeon no longer sell them and the guy that was meant to be distributing them (this is some years ago) seems to be unresponsive.

Are you going to post them?

Thanks

 

The Gougeon mast design was published years ago in one of the multihull magazines, maybe it was French, Bateaux or Neptune Nautisme. The point is there is no black magic in their design; it's just a basic wing mast, although if I remember correctly, a bit stubby and abrupt in cross section profile. I was surprised by the excessive weight. There is absolutely no excuse to have a heavy wing mast if the chord/thickness is of decent proportions. You're not building a brick and cement outhouse.
Found this section from a French publication of some well proportioned wing masts from their maxi-multihulls of that time. They are all of high technology construction. Still look excellent to me. But you can build the same with basic materials too. Did I say it is not black magic?

 

Ian Turner is the man to ask on this matter. His wing mast was designed by Lock Crowther and built by Canadian Multihull services. In 1973 he cleaned up the American "A" class nationals on his Crowther "Typhoon", winning all three races on both elapsed and corrected times. The mast was elliptical in plan form, with a fairly fat section and was all foam sandwich construction using 5/8th" foam 6oz glass and polyester resin. I'll see if I can get some pics up.

 

Hydro Nick,

The only reason I didn't to start with was that I have misplaced them.
Remember, this was an article about a DN Iceboat mast, not the full sized Gougeon plans (I never had those).

Right now the DN mast site is "under revision".
I am kicking myself (again) for not getting a copy of everything I was interested in. Links go dead so I try to copy the whole article - well I can't find it.

Try this to wet your whistle.
http://smalltrimarans.com/blog/?p=6282
I mentioned it before.

 

Thanks upchurchmr: Gary Baigent is the guy on this, as you can see by his post above... I searched his posts some time back...maybe with masts in the header and found fairly detailed instructions that he had posted. I am probably no longer in the mast building business.

Nick

 

As far as I know Gary's masts are different from other designs.

Any particular reason you are no longer interested?

 

Be interested to know what section mast that is for?

We have built carbon masts (infused, one piece, including sheer web and track) for similar tris which weigh 4.7 kgs per m. The equivalent stiffness aluminium mast (AYS 300) is 8.7 kgs/m. The laminate in the carbon mast can also be reduced where necessary, which results in a significant further saving.

Carbon is used for masts for the simple reason that it is lighter and stiffer than aluminium.

If Richard's weight is correct, a carbon mast, with the same strength and stiffness properties could be built at almost half the weight. And for not much more money. The section above costs $AUS860/ or 430 pound stg per m.

rob

 

The blank came out at 4.1kg/m which is about the same as a lightweight ali section. The ali section is not recommended for the 14 meter 'R' rig because it is not stiff enough so there is no direct comparison
The mast is stiff enough that I only need single spreaders and diamonds. I was able to shorten the diamonds too - that got the jib sheeted a bit closer!
The Tides marine track added another 5kg overall but is worth the penalty

 

The MOCRA Nationals are in Plymouth this year so we will be down there. How about you?
We won a couple of races at last years event so will be looking to improve on that!

 

I will only be in Cornwall in May I'm afraid, but will probably miss the Falmouth triangle. Last year I raced on Backlash 2

But I should be in the Solent area the second May holiday if you know anyone who wants a crew

RW

 

This was just posted on facebook "The Multihull Appreciation Society", originating from Kurt Hughes

http://multihullblog.com/2015/04/mast-scantlings/

 

Don't know if you guys have seen this, but it is by far my favorite wingmast construction so far. Kind of combines a birdsmouth idea with the wingmast shape and a luff track. It is used for ice yachts, so it would probably only be a good idea on boats with a rig smaller than, say a hobie 16.



http://idniyra.org/old/articles/mast_made_easy.htm

 

Made a part for something last week, not boat related, but was a dog for a fence on router table. I wanted it wing shaped for single pin holding, and strong, so inner channel as well. It was only 2 inches and I used pvc pipe as a plug. What I did was cut section of a size, then next size up that slipped over it, but that one was cut in half. So I had half circle with a step from sidewall of larger pipe. I just snapped iton with a few dots of glue then wax and pva and carbon lay up over it. Pop it off and ya have half circle with step layer into it to catch sheet material on back. I would think one could easily get larger diam and long lengths of cheap pvc and do the same thing? Maybe even 2 size up pipe cut in half as a press for ply on a mold? And further thought on large scale, you could ditch larger pipe on back side for just sinking tube into a table for flange line slash parting board. Few saw cuts into pipe 1 apart would even get you a cast in I-beam flange.

Barry

 

As interest, Guys. Here is a cross section of my mast. It was built by the previous owner of my cat, is 43 feet long, 8 inches deep and 4 inches wide. The timber portions are spruce and the sides are four layers of very thin laminated aircraft ply. Maybe 1/4" total.

The whole thing is wrapped in two layers of glass. The pieces are joined with thickened epoxy with a couple of coats of resin on the inner surfaces. It seems to be quite stiff and doesn't pump in high wind when I find myself THERE.

It has a double diamond spreaders and rotates. That's about all I know of it. If anyone knows who the designer might be, I'd be interested.

 

Some of that separation at edge, and maybe a void near middle top, where those there or occurred during disassembly? Like the design though, looks stout.

Barry