Mast sleeve and battens [Peter]

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Peter wrote:

Where can I get a new / replacement mast sleeve for my 2 section mast ? I had a bit of a disaster on my first outing with my new (new to me, but rather old in terms of boat age!) Spark at Grafham on Saturday. Whilst sailing along happily in a nice breeze I heard a rather unnerving crunching noise near ?B? bouy, rapidly followed by being unceremoniously draped in mainsail, mast sections and rigging!

Being an old boat (Sail No. 272), the sleeve is fibreglass ? I understand that the later models have aluminium sleeves ? presumably these are a bit more robust. I could also do with 2 new battens (nos 2 & 3), or if anyone has some old bits of broken battens, I can repair these using Bob Carter?s article in the Tips section of this website.

Apart from this, we managed to get in a fair bit of good sailing on my first outing in UK waters. The facilities at Grafham are excellent, and many thanks to the rescue crew who came to our assistance and towed us back. We will be back!

Peter (Spark 272)

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Brian Phipps replied:

Hi Peter, If you find some one with a bent or broken mast section that you can remove the sleeve from that will be the cheapest option. Other than that it is a bit fiddly. First look to get the old one out with out disturbing the sealing plug in the mast. The die for the mast has been replaced over the years and that may effect the wall thickness very slightly so the aluminium sleeve section had a rail on the back edge you could file down.
The new masts from SA have a mmuch improved glass mast sleeve but it might need some careful fitting + the length of the sleeve may require the mast plugs to be moved and re-sealed.

If you want to talk it through more give me a call.
Brian

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George Stephen replied:

Peter,

When the keener sailors return from the Nationals (finished yesterday, fun days 'til Thursday) you should get good advice from them, especially Bob Carter. You'll probably get told to contact Steve Sawford....

Last I heard there were no aluminium sleeves in stock anywhere (ie Catparts.Windsports and Laser Centre), and no more to be made. So replacement will be fibreglass unless you are lucky.

One of the competitors at the Nationals suffered when the 2 halves (the glass fibre sleeves are made in 2 halves, and then glued together) of his sleeve parted - the damage was terminal save for sailing ashore. Attempts at the time to effect a repair by re-glueing were foiled by dampness. When he gets home he's going to try to get the join totally dry before making another reglueing attempt. If that fails he'll have your problem (I think it's sheer coincidence there are 2 at the same time - I haven't heard of that many failures - but I've seen 3 bent Dart 16 masts.....)

As Brian is the supplier of Sprint 15 spares, his advice to try to find an old mast from which you can salvage the sleeve is admirably honest, and his offer of telephone advice is cool!!! If you want to try this route, try contacting WH Insurance - they may know of sources. Otherwise new glass fibre sleeves are only available from Brian at Catparts - and bear in mind he may not yet have any in stock and may have to import them from the new manufacturer in South Africe....

Very best of luck,
George

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jsc replied:

Sorry to be a bit stupid but I've got a 2 part mast and am wondering what the fibreglass sleeve is. Have I got a part missing? Is it inside or outside the mast? Presumably it's by the join?

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Peter replied:

It is the bit that allows the one part of the mast to slip onto the other part to make it one long piece. It is the connecting bit between the two parts. It is attached to one of the mast sections. Yours may not be fibreglass - I understand that there are some aluminium, and even some wooden ones around! If yours is missing then you won't be able to put the two sections together.

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Bob replied:

Masts are already in short supply with several boats without masts and masts are even being stolen to support a black market and now we have 2 old boats with broken fibreglass joining pieces. The new boats will have fibre glass joining pieces too but as Brian Phipps says they are not guaranteed to fit the new extrusion. Brian has the prototype of the new joining piece from South Africa and what needs to happen is someone needs to try this in an old 2 piece mast to see what is required to fettle it to fit - so either Peter or Keith Newnham should do this and document what they find.
I'll discuss it with Brian Phipps to see if he has any spare joining pieces on the next shipment from South Africa. If now we could approach Steve Sawford to make up a job lot for mast repair purposes.
Watch this space.
Regards
Bob

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George Stephen replied:

Hi jsc,

I'm sure that sleeve is not the right technical term, but I'm equally sure that Peter and Brian meant the aluminium section or the glass fibre moulding that is fixed INSIDE one part of the 2-piece mast at the joint, and over which you slide the hollow end of the other part of the mast.

If you've been sailing your boat you've not been missing anything, and certainly mot something you'd expect to go outside the mast.

Early boats, and the new Sprint 15s arriving from South Africa shortly, have glass fibre ones, later Dart 15s have an aluminium one.

George

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AndrewHannah replied:

One of the Thorpe Bay Sprinters has an engineering business, (employs about 50 people), and who is able to knock up aluminium plugs if there is sufficient demand.

Would the association like me to look into this a little further?

Andrew Hannah.