[C38] Mast Wedges

[Phil Gay]

My wooden mast wedges started falling out and I decided to use Spartite
around the partners.  I replaced the mast almost 4 years ago and the LeFiel
mast is longer front to back than the old mast and just barely fits into the
partners.  I have only 3/16” gap on the front and back sides of the mast.  A
friend was going to give me a Spartite kit that he had bought thinking he
would need two.  After looking at the narrow space around the mast and
wondering how I was going to clean the mast while putting Vaseline around
the partners not to mention creating a gasket around the mast, I decided
against the Spartite.  The same friend had worked for 2 days cutting his
Spartite so he could get the mast out of the boat.

 

I decided to use hard rubber wedges.  I looked for the material on the
internet without success, but was able to buy it from our local rigger in a
single foot square ¾” thick sheet.  It was easy to cut on a bandsaw and I
made 1” and 2” wide wedges of thickness varying from ½” down to 3/16”.  I
wasn’t able to drive them into the gap but was able to pull the mast front
to back and side to side with a block and tackle attached to the mast just
above the partners and press them into place.  The wedges weren’t really
wedge shaped after all and looked like an “L” sections with the base
inverted so that the wedges wouldn’t slip down between the mast and the
partners.  This seems like a good solution to holding the mast in place but
I’ll give you an update in a few months.

 

Phil Gay

C38 049 Que Linda

Everett WA

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