Topmasts

Beadle

Beadle

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Olive needs a new topmast.

The original has looked shaky for a while

Took it down (well the yard did) before Xmas, its burgered! - tried a few places around Tyneside but not much interest shown from anyone.

Its not huge, a shade over 15 ft long, but it does need a bit of work fitting pulley wheels and things.

I can buy a telegraph pole but don't know anywhere who can turn it down to size.

Any ideas welcome - I've run out.
 
Douglas Fir commonly used in this application. Readily available from specialist timber merchants such as Robbins and should be able to get in one length in a section big enough to shape down to a round. Alternative is to build up a blank by laminating - or even be radical and make it from two pieces it a T shape.
 
Have you considered making a hollow mast where you epoxy together several flat sections
as here
in this sort of shape?

med_th.jpg
 
Beadle said:
Olive needs a new topmast.

The original has looked shaky for a while

Took it down (well the yard did) before Xmas, its burgered! - tried a few places around Tyneside but not much interest shown from anyone.

Its not huge, a shade over 15 ft long, but it does need a bit of work fitting pulley wheels and things.

I can buy a telegraph pole but don't know anywhere who can turn it down to size.

Any ideas welcome - I've run out.
Click to expand...

Not around Tyneside but these make wooden masts/spars http://www.aaneslandfabrikker.no/boat_masts.asp
 
I'd have a bit of think about telegraph poles as - from a half dozen which BT gave us recently for fence posts - the quality can be very variable. On one, the outside (preserved by the thickest creosote mixture since Noah) was fine, but the interior was almost like balsa wood. Others have long shakes which go deep into the core. Fine for agricultural use, but perhaps not to Olive's topmast.

If you got hold of a decent pole, I'd be tempted to power plane it (wearing masks and overalls, of course !) to size. Turning on a lathe, umm, no.

Lots of Tool Hire firms do power planes, and as they can take off at least 3mm per pass, that will soon whittle down a pole to size. You'll end up with a pretty inflammable pile of shavings, though.


How long is the top mast BTW, as I might have a shortish section of decent pole and can send you some dimensions.
 
You could try Collars: http://www.collars.co.uk/site/
Just up their street this sort of thin - and reasonable price (IMHO). 15ft can be sent by their parcel carrier
I would ask them to make it hollow out of Douglas Fir - the weight saving by being hollow is very worthwhile.
Jeremy is the boss

(No connection except as customer)
 
Is there any chance that this could be a good time to consider a conversion to a topsail yard !

My own boat has a gaff rig and has had its tallish mast chopped down to a more manageable size and a yard made from an aluminium pole with wooded plugs each end. All works fine and the mast is now the same length as the boat at 24foot -- so the mast stores easily in a lowered position over winter with tarp cover over.
 
Not sure if you got my e-mail I sent you last year.

You might try and contact NEMT over in South Shields of which I am a member http://www.nemaritimetrust.co.uk/ (just down river past the SS ferry landing)

They might (for a donation) make you a new mast as they sure are experts in woodwork, if they can not then I am 100% sure they will know where to get one locally.

If they can make one you can also 'collect it' (at high tide) alongside their quay!

Hope this might help and good luck

Mike
 
bluemoongaffer said:
You could try Collars: http://www.collars.co.uk/site/
Just up their street this sort of thin - and reasonable price (IMHO). 15ft can be sent by their parcel carrier
I would ask them to make it hollow out of Douglas Fir - the weight saving by being hollow is very worthwhile.
Jeremy is the boss

(No connection except as customer)
Click to expand...

+1 for Collars - probably the best wooden mast builder in the UK - many wooden boat builders use them rather than building the masts themselves. If not them, then any reputable woden boat builder can do it for you.

Hollow is good for weight saving and, for a small pole like you're after, can be done from just two halves - all dinghy masts were made this way until aluminium started in the fifties. But hollow will be a bitmore expensive. Douglas fir or sitka spruce are preferred timbers, and a piece that has been properly seasoned and is free of shakes and knots.

Peter
 
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