mainmast diameter

[tonyg]

I have a 17' grp gaffer dayboat. The 18' untapered pine mast is 3ins diameter and weighs 15kilos(20 with gaff, which is 2 ins square, hollow and ten ft. long) I feel the mast is unnecessarily robust and am tempted to whittle away to reduce topweight. Comment appreciated please. Tonyg

 

[chippie]

Have you thought of sawing it down the middle and routing out the centre and epoxy gluing it back together. If you tapered it from about two thirds of the way up it would probably look ok but would it affect the way the gaff sits?
It would probably pay to do the tapering before the routing.The tapering could be done by careful planing to an octagonal shape and then sanding by turning a sanding belt inside out and carefully sanding with a drum mounted in an electric drill.
I hope this is some help.
Good luck