Stuck 2-part mast

[Charles]

My mast won't split down, I suspect it may not have been split since it was new (ca. 1989).

Any thoughts?

Thanks

[Andrew Hannah]

I once came across this, on somebody else's boat. We had two people trying to pull the mast apart. One on the heel and one at the top. In the struggle, the two parts wouldn't separate.

To resolve matters, we secured the heel to the mast ball with the mast pin. This meant the mast was secured to the boat. The two of us then pulled at the top section, and the two halves separated.

[Peter Lytton]

I always secure the lower half of the mast to the ball with the pin to split it, or to assemble it, as it means I can do it on my own. Just one word of caution- do not twist the mast to one side, as it is possible to break the mast heel casting, which I did once upon a time, raising the mast on my 18.

[Charles]

Thanks for the advice guys, I tried pulling the mast apart with the heel attached to the ball & boat tied down on it's berth, but only managed 1' movement.

In the end I took the mast home & blathered it with WD40, left for a few hours and with the mast heel attached to a bouncy castle stake managed to pull the the mast apart with much grunting & groaning.

I think someone had applied some sort of grease at some time & as the mast clearly hasn't been spit for many years the grease turned to glue!

I've cleaned up the plug & it now fits snugly.