Re: [bolger] Hobbie Cat Mast for Oldshoe

The Hobie mast is designed to be supported by standing rigging, and
there's no place to put shrouds and a forestay on an Oldshoe. Just about
all of the mass produced sailboats use stayed masts.

Bolger uses a whippy wooden mast -- it tapers to less than an inch in
diameter at the head. This sort of mast is what works best with a
sprit-boomed leg o' mutton sail. The mast off a Laser of Finn might work
OK if it was the right size.

On 4/14/2018 4:51 PM, Buddy wrote:
>
>
> Hi all,
>
> My "Bolger Olshoe insprired" (the builder only followed the general
> shape of the hull and the sail sizes and layout) has a eyeball
> engineered aluminum tube mast. Well, it did not take long to bend it
> about 20 degrees (and IMO I did not feel like I was pushing any limits
> at the time). Well, I managed to unbend it fairly well, flipped top for
> bottom and inserted some steel piping going up a good distance. It is
> HEAVY now.
>
> Reengineering the mast is gonna be kinda pricey. 20 foot aluminum tubing
> is not cheap. And I probably need an insert in that that goes up up a
> good ways and then a 2nd insert in the first insert that goes up a good
> ways in 1st insert.
>
> Well, I just happened to notice a hobbie cat mast for sale cheep on
> Craigs list.
>
> Would that work as a mast?

--
John (jkohnen@...)
The wonder is always new that any sane man can be a sailor. (Ralph Waldo
Emerson)

Hi Buddy

I would seriously suggest you go with a wooden mast as designed by Bolger. I made mine from a reasonably good 2x8 split lengthwise and glued together. I had to scarf the length because the wood I got was 16’ (which was much clearer than the 20’ stock when I was buying at the time).

Take your time to choose the piece of wood and a few hours to make it (per Bolgers plan) and I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

I gave up on the mast track and slides after a couple of seasons and simply used Bolgers system of ties which works great and is much cheaper. You just need about 50’ of thin line.

If you want to use aluminium I would suggest you replace the steel reinforcement with wood or aluminium (or you’ll have some nasty corrosion issues soon). If you use Bolgers tie system you don’t need a sail track. However I’m not sure you’ll clear the joint where the top mast enters the bottom mast. That said, I’m not convinced any standard aluminium mast profile is going to do very well as none are designed to be free standing. The upper section of an aluminium lamp post or big flag pole might work (if you can get one).

David