wooden masts

[steveo]

Hi, I have been looking at your designs and final builds for some time now. I quite fancy building a decent fishing boat sometime, once I have finished restoring my 49' Samson C-Breeze. I am ready for masts now, all 18 m for main and 13 m for mizzen. I have been given a good price for lengths of clean macracarpa, and I will laminate them up into a finished mast. Now, the question I have is about the lamination. Has anyone got any views on the direction of lamination. should the wide side of the planks face for'ard with the thin sections facing outwards towards the beam, or the other way around with the laminations facing for'ard and the wide section a'thwart ships.

[thudpucker]

I'm not a Whiffer, but my Hunting partner was.

He did build a Wood composite mast. It was back in the 70's.
I think you can find photos and drawings on the net.

His mast was 12' or about that.
Then only trouble he had was making the pieces all straight grained, and making the joints all the same.
The Epoxy glue held up great.
The inside was Hollow. All the Power and other cables went up the inside.
The Light at the top of the mast was added on afterwards.

I never went out in it. I'd push him off though. It worked.

[AaronStJ]

Sounds like you've already got an idea what you want to do, so feel free to ignore me. But. Eighteen meters is quite big. Have you considered a birdsmouth mast? You know, in case you wanted to spend a few more nights awake dreaming of complicated cuts. http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/04/s/a ... irdsmouth/