Daryl Morgan from Bainbridge shows us how to repair a rip in a spinnaker.
My one of my Coates Marine, 14 SWG gunter masts broke during the 2017 Worlds. As you can see, it's a pretty clean break caused by corrosion where the spinnaker pole eye is riveted onto the mast. I thought I would try and repair it.
First stage was to cut the tube just above & below the break to get a neat edge. So I made up a ring of 2" 14SWG alloy 25mm long to replace what I have cut off so the mast ends up the same length.
14SWG is about 2mm, so ideally I would use some (50.8mm - 2 X 2mm = approx) 46mm OD 14SWG tube to go inside the mast at the break. Sadly, it seems impossible to obtain (at the time of writing, 2017, anyway). Looking online & locally I could only get 13/4" (44.5mm) so I used a piece about 250mm long. Needless to say, it was rather a sloppy fit, so I coated the 13/4" tube with thickened (collodia silica & mircofibres) epoxy resin to bring it closer to 46.8mm.
I wanted to make the mast, if anything, stronger than it had been. To do this I decided to add a short length of 21/4" tube to the outside of the join. I could only get this in 10SWG, so I cut a short length (100mm) and then abraded the inside to reduce wall thickness so it would slide over the 50.8mm main tube. I found a abrasive flap wheel on an electric drill and hand abrading using 60 grit wet & dry sandpaper used wet did the job (eventually)
I was worried that unless the two parts of the mast were perfectly aligned, the outer tube would not side over the join. So I glued the 25mm long ring on the thickened 46mm inside tube half way along and let this dry. Then I assembled the mast repair in one go.
Bent masts may be straightened providing the bend is gentle and there are no distinct signs of other damage. If there are signs of the spar extrusion having collapsed or large dents in the area of the bend or local damage adjacent to the spreader bracket, straightening may not be successful.
DO NOT lever the mast between two posts and attempt to straighten from one end as this will almost certainly result in an unreparable kink at one of the supports.
The mast may be straightened by supporting it on trestles, tyres or sandbags or something equally soft about 3m apart equally spaced either side of the point of maximum bend. Then with the help of a colleague or two, ease the mast down in the opposite direction of the bend - the mast will be "springy" and it takes a bit of effort to push the bend out.
If in doubt contact a Superspars reseller for advice.
Boat Repair Top Tips from Pete Vincent at the RYA Suzuki Dinghy Show 2016
