Wooden Mast or better aluminium?

[Ibetitsthisway]

Hi guys,

beeing in the market for a steel (Motor) sailer, I come cross some very nice cutters which are apealing to me.
I simply like those ships. I could fall in love from one to another.

Many of them are wooden mast ketches. Ketch is great. but wooden mast?

I have absolutely no knowledge about masts from Wood, but I am afraid of rotting and breaking and a hell lot of work with painting....

can anyone enlighten me on this? is it worth a try?
I am not the Harbour living type of user - we want to go North - maybe into the ice.

[Benz]

Well-maintained wooden masts can last for years. We have some around here that are 50+ years old and still sailing. There are also the rotted remains of many wooden masts lying around odd corners of every boatyard. It depends on quality of construction and on maintenance.
While I prefer aluminum for masts, I would not worry about a wooden one IF it showed no signs of rot or delamination, and a qualified surveyor who specialized in wooden spars gave it the OK.
You will have to spend a lot of time and effort maintaining a wood spar, far more than an alloy one.

[fourlyons]

Originally Posted by Benz

Well-maintained wooden masts can last for years. We have some around here that are 50+ years old and still sailing. There are also the rotted remains of many wooden masts lying around odd corners of every boatyard. It depends on quality of construction and on maintenance.
While I prefer aluminum for masts, I would not worry about a wooden one IF it showed no signs of rot or delamination, and a qualified surveyor who specialized in wooden spars gave it the OK.
You will have to spend a lot of time and effort maintaining a wood spar, far more than an alloy one.

I agree with everything said here except the bit about far more work maintaining a wood mast. That would be true if you are trying to keep it beautifully varnished, but a well built, well engineered mast painted with a LP paint can go 15 years with nothing more than the same rig inspections an aluminum mast should have. True, repainting every 15 years could be considered a lot more maintenance; on the other hand wood masts have some advantages over aluminum.
An important detail is how is the standing rigging is fixed to the mast, and wether there are internal sheaves at the mast head or external blocks for the running rigging. If not done right, these details can allow water in and rot to start. If you keep the water out, even masts glued with less than waterproof glue, can last well over 50 years.

[Delfin]

One issue with painted wooden masts is that rot can be happening and you can't see it. Having maintained a 55' spruce mast for 20 years, I'd opt for aluminum.