Timber mast?

Gordonmc

Gordonmc

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Restoration of my Hillyard 8 tonner is coming along to plan with the bilge-plates replaced, engine back together, coachhouse brightwork done and deck painted.
The next big phase is the topside painting and chainplate re-galvanising, but it was always intended to do this after some summer use.
What might throw things to kilter is I have found a very nice looking hollow pitch pine mast and boom... and I am tempted. At some stage the boat was fitted with a black anodised alloy mast, but still has the original pine boom... sadly now badly warped.
I have been told the wooden stick would be much heavier than the alloy, although the standing rigging of galvanised wire would be good enough to take it.
Any thoughts on this? Apart from vanity is there any benefit to a wooden mast?
 
Definitely; they don't "ding" when the halyards slap against them, assuming that you haven't siezed the halyards to the shrouds when at anchor. I find that a particularly annoying thing, and am glad that my ketch has all wooden spars. Other than that, the appeal is aesthetic. Don't however let that put you off; you should be able to look back at your yacht/ boat when you leave it and marvel, as I do, at your good fortune in owning such a thing of beauty. It makes all the work worth while. For work there surely will be. To cut back on the brightwork which has to be maintained, fishermen and other maritime professionals would paint the top third or quarter of the mast white, as this is much more durable than varnish. I have done this on my boat, and now I don't have to go to the top of the masts any more.
Peter.
 
Restore the masts and varnish them with coelans, paint the tops of the spreaders white, over the coelans, the masts will look 1000 dollars ans stay that way, I agree with the ohter guy, there is nothing better than the view when leaving the boat, apart from coming to the boat! Thers no question, coelans does not look plasticky, especially on masts and lasts ages! I know, come and look at my boat!
 
From your post you seem happy with the work that a wooden boat creates therefore I would not hesitate to go for the wooden mast. I am sure that she will look great! Good luck.


PZ
 
Well, I doubt if the mast is hollow pitch pine. Oregon pine, as they call it in the USA, or British Columbian Pine, ("BCP") as it is called in Britain, is much more likely. Pitch pine is very heavy and because it is so resinous it does not glue that well. If the colour is rather orange, it is BCP. If it is rather pale, and decidedly light, it is silver (Sitka) spruce.

Anyway, would definitely go for the wooden mast. It looks a million times better, but beyond that there are three other considerations

1. The weight may actually be a blessing, by increasing the roll moment of inertia, and there is no such thing as a stripped out racer version of a Hillayd 8 tonner - she is meant to be a comfortable, capable, cruiser!

2. As alread mentioned, no horrible banging noises - just annoying tapping noises!

3. You can easily screw things onto it, such as cleats, radar reflectors, spreader lights, and so on.

Coelan is an expensive slution but not a silly idea if you want to minimise varnishing, although it must be said that the varnish on a mast lasts far better than deck brightwork does, anyway, being round and vertical and seldom trodden on! I find I have been using more and more of the stuff - it s brilliant for woden block shells, deadeyes and suchlike bits. But "real" varnish does look better.
 
Just as a matter of interest, "coelans is an expensive solution" coelans costs about +/- £38 a litre, lasts at least 10 years with six coats on a mast, epifanes is +/- £17 a litre and lasts 3 -5 years with twelve coats, so where is coelans more expensive, just in materials it makes sense and then theres the un-stepping of the mast and labour and other materials to be taken into consideration, twice remember! I have done mine with coelans, half the time of varnish and looks just as good, I defy you to come to my boat and tell me which parts are coelans and which are epifanes, most people and I mean those who should know, can't tell. I'ts all in the application, put it on like a coating and it will look lilke a coating, put it on like varnish and hey presto! Varnish (I'm reading Harry Potter at the moment). By the way I've been at this varnishing lark for 37 years!
 
Definitely go for timber, for all reasons, mentioned. At the risk of sounding not very traditional I add that I have varnished masts in various great solutions and they all need re-doing after two or three years with the exception perhaps of Coelan - though I doubt whether anyone here has had it on the mast for ten years yet. In CB we've been running a varnish test with the new woodstains which are UV protective, and breathable, and which, while not bright, at least keep the colour and patina of natural wood. I rebuilt my mast (see CB 161) last year and used just four (very quickly applied) coats of Sikkens Nova Tech. This year our outdoors test of Sikkens is in its third year (see CB 167), with no sign of deterioration on the Nova Tech. The point is that the whole mast took less than an hour to coat with four coats (over a few days taking around 15 min per coat), and it looks fine after its first winter. The Sikkens is £9 a tin.
 
Humm. I have a 41ft mast, 8ins in diameter at the deck. With deadeyes and lanyards, taking it in and out is a bit of a game, so it stays in three years at a time, with 8 coats of Epifanes to start with and two coats a year after that, then it comes out and goes back to bare wood.

I find this quite a good arrangement, because it means that I get to look properly at the whole mast at least one year in three. I find that one litre of Epifanes varnish goes much, much further than one litre of Coelan does, which is why I said that Coelan is expensive.

The oldest bits of Coelan on the boat are now six years old (I was an "early adopted"!) they have gone rather dull and look very "plastic", but on the other hand I have not had to varnish them.

What Coelan is brilliant for is putting on teak decks to stop them leaking - but we put deck paint over it because it is like a skating rink when wet.
 
I've had coelans on my spinny poles for six years, not a mark on them and they lie parallel to the sun, ie. on deck. 15 mins a coat! Must be pretty small masts, you can just about walk round mine in 15 mins! No seriously I have pretty big masts not very tall, 15 meters and 12, but big sections. having used coelans in hard wearing areas, I have no doubt on the masts, standing upright, it should last at least ten years, when your results of the varnish tests are ready I will buy a copy of CB, just for a little lookie! Is this sikkens stuff a varnish, coating oil or what, is it shiny/matt or a stain, would be interested to see it. I've seen lots of these pigmented coatings is it like that?
 
My main mast is 48' and about 18" x 12" at the base and very chunky. I found that using the coelans with the thinners, it goes on very well, just like varnish, but and it's a big but, you need new coelans, manufacture date no more than three months, if it's over that refuse it and order new, it thickens with age! Have you tried polishing your older duller coelans, with a car polish, try it! don't rub too hard!
 
Yes it is pigmented, but we used a light pine variation - the lightest they have, which turned the pale newly sanded spruce golden. The finish is not quite matt, but with only a light sheen. It definitely doesn't look as good as new Epiphanes, or Tonkinois or Varnol, or Deks Olje No2, or just your bog standard International. The difference I was hoping for was that I only needed a few coats – Ken went round with a brush and I ragged it smooth after, and yes each coat took around quarter of an hour on a 33ft mast. The other difference was that hopefully it won't all be coming down at the end of next season. But Sikkens doesn't even market it as a marine product - we're a bit out on a limb with it; it's from the building trade side of things. I used to hate stains, but the new generation are much lighter, and show the grain. That's why I used it.
 
A timber mast will:
1) slow down the rolling motion giving you a more comfortable ride
2) if kept in good condition, will outlast aluminium, particularly as wood does not fatigue like metal does
3) because it is heavier, it will reduce the load on your standing rigging (I know this may sound wrong!)
4) look better
 
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