Fiberglassing wood masts

[San Juan Sailor]

Scot,
I'm on San Juan Island. Nice boats those Ingrids. I was considering one that was for sale in Anacortes last year ( a project ) for $20k but ended up with the Mariner, a major project. There's a beautiful example of an Ingrid "Ingrid Princess" at Shipyard Cove Marina next to Jensens where I keep my San Juan 24.
Dan

[Cheechako]

No and No. Glass has a habit of delaminating from wood. A lot of people have thought they could solve that problem, just walk though a large marina with old boats and you'll see the result. If you've even seen the mess when Epoxy goes bad on a toe rail or bulwark cap... you'll realize it's almost unfixable....unless you dont care how it looks. Proper paint will outlast varnish dramatically. The pigment protects the finish. No easy answers though for a painted surface...

[jaga]

Absolutly agree with Cheechako. I have a wooden boat shipwright friend who tried an epoxy finish on his cap rail on one side, and a good varnish on the other. The expoxy lasted longer but when it did fail, it was a nightmare to get off to refinish.

I painted the top of my bowsprit two years ago with EasyPoxy (other sides varnished), and except where I nicked it, it looks almost like it's just been painted. Varnish would never hold up that way. The only downside to painting other than aesthetics, is (as mentioned earlier) you can't see what's going on underneath. It's a trade off.

Scot

[rebel heart]

Jaga-

You might run into our friends Randal and Jessica on their boat Alastor; a very nice couple from San Diego. I think they just went to Roche from Friday Harbor. I used to live up near America Camp; beautiful place!

If you run into them, tell them Eric and Charlotte from San Diego say hello!

[jaga]

I'll look for them. What kind of boat is Alastor? Will make looking easier...

And, where in San Diego? I grew up there.

Scot

[caprhap]

Just sold a Cheoy Lee Offshore 27 (two boats is one too many) with the original spruce mast, boom, and spinnaker pole. All were varnished, with SPAR varnish. Spar varnish is more flexible, albeit a bit softer, to compensate for mast movement and flexing. It also has more UV protectants than an interior varnish would require, for obvious reasons.

Epoxying the mast offers no benefit that I can ascertain, but if you need to remove it, you'll rue the day...

[rebel heart]

Originally Posted by caprhap

Epoxying the mast offers no benefit that I can ascertain, but if you need to remove it, you'll rue the day...

Sealing the wood from moisture is a pretty good reason in my opinion. Paint does that as well, but paint can flake off as where a penetrating epoxy is going to be substantially more solid (and then there's paint on top of that).

And if you do manage to get rot, it certainly will not spread nearly as far or as fast with epoxied wood.

I don't know a lot of people who voluntarily are getting wooden spars these days. I have one that's (now, after $7K in repairs) in great shape. It's epoxied and painted, and getting ready to go back on the boat.

I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for a nice aluminum spar that's a few feet higher than my existing, so I can get a little more oomph out of her and drop some weight. When I find that, I'll drop the wooden stick, replacing my standing rigging in total, and never look back.

[Amgine]

I'd love a wooden spar if I had the money to make someone else take care of it for me. But I don't, and if I had that kind of money I'm sure I could find some ways to spend it...

I *would* like to see what the radar refelection of a wood spar with aluminum foil inside it is compared to an aluminum spar.