Dart 15 Forums

Has anybody had problems with the mast joining sleeve wearing on a two piece
mast? I noticed when out sailing today in light winds that the top section flops side
to side as you tack give the effect of a side ways bend on the mast.

Was thinking of brushing some resin on the fibreglass sleeve to build it up,
unless anybody has a better solution.

Thanks
Andy

Andy

Try searching for an answer by Bob some time ago, I think that was to do with fixing the plug into the bottom section. Is your plug loose, or is the top section loose on the plug? Neither option sounds very nice & certainly should be fixed before any more sailing makes the problem worse.

Hi Andy,
when I had problems with my two piece mast I found that the sleeve had split down the join (length-ways). The sleeve is manufactured in two pieces and stuck together with resin as far as I can make out, if yours is the same as this then maybe you can wedge it apart, clean out the join with acetone and then re-apply resin and clamp it together until cured. Removing the sleeve from the mast itself I found very difficult, and probably not worth trying as you could end up something completely unusable. Good luck. Keith.

Charles wrote:Andy

Try searching for an answer by Bob some time ago, I think that was to do with fixing the plug into the bottom section. Is your plug loose, or is the top section loose on the plug? Neither option sounds very nice & certainly should be fixed before any more sailing makes the problem worse.

Hi Guys
There are 2 types of joining piece. Boats from 1200 to 1992 have an aluminium joining piece, which can work loose and let in water. This was my problem but my fixes were not 100% effective. I did find a 100% fix - I bought one piece masts with all my later boats. Older boats (less than 1170 sail number) and also very recent boats (after sail number 2000) have a fibre glass joining piece. If this is what you have got building it up with resin might work. As Art K points out these can fail structurally so have a good look at it. I have seen them bend and break several times ( Ron Sawford, Steve's Dad, had this at a Nationals at Pentewan some time ago). Windsport stock the fibreglass joining piece which can probably be used even on an old UK mast although it might require fettling to make it fit.
Cheers
Bob

Thanks for your replies chaps.
Just had my mast apart and it seems that the sleeve is slightly worn and also
I think the metal at the top of the lower section has probably stretched a bit making
the hole slightly bigger. As an experiment I've put a couple of layers of aluminium
tape around the sleeve and it had virtually eliminated the slop, so I'm going to go ahead with my
original idea of building up the sleeve with resin.

Thanks
Andy