Mast Truss

[30boat]

I thought engineering plastics would be a good fit too, so I approached a couple of companies who work with Acetel (which is often used as a plastic SS substitute). When I suggested the compressive loads could be north of three tonnes (a rough rule of thumb being the weight of the boat is equal to the loads at the mast foot) they ran a mile and refused to quote, so no cigar there.



No offence taken, on the contrary, thanks for the input. I initially started from the position of a composite step, wood and epoxy, however I have been warned off it from multiple sources. I'm quite used to relying on wood (my father sailed a 1930s Harley Mead Gaff Cutter, so my youth was spent on that). How would you suggest to fill that void then? End grain facing upwards, and multiple oak 'bulkedheads' epoxied in one at a time before fibreglassing the whole solid 'truss' in. Having no voids that can fill with water seems like a good way to go - with the added bonus of no metal to rust, no crevice corrosion. Finally, to fix on the mast step to the new composite truss, self tappers bonded with epoxy (http://www.westsystem.com/ss/bonding-hardware/)?

I'd suggest exactly as you describe. For the mast step coach bolts in epoxy will be perfect.That´s what I used on my previous boat without any problems.I withdraw my comment,you do know about the subject