Hi Gang,
I have a previously painted mast and wishbone that are in rough shape that I plan to paint. Has anyone done this work before? What paint did you use? I’ve removed everything except the track. Any advice/info/experience would be awesome.
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At the point where I’m typing this, I see you’ve gotten 27 views and no responses so I’ll try to be a little helpful by pointing out two articles which might be useful if you haven’t seen them already:
Sorry, other than than that, my painting experience has consisted of spraying a white monourethane paint on my mast to cover dings until I have a chance to plan a better job.
FWIW, I do know there are different considerations for painted aluminum vs. painted and/or gelcoated carbon fiber masts. So you might want to make sure you’re getting advice from people who know which kind you have.
– Bob
Specific advice would depend on the previous layers and the outcome you want to achieve.
General advice, it’s a good offseason project if you have your ducks in a row ahead of time.
My view is my mast and wishbone is a critical system on Soave. If I planned to go through the expense and effort to renew the finish, I’d use the instructions on the INA website to perform a full inspection and renewal of the mast and wishbone. During my inspection of Soave I found multiple places where the isolation barrier between aluminum and stainless was compromised. Renewing the isolation layer isn’t difficult but it is VERY time consuming.
Unless I had help already lined up, I would postpone the painting project till next winter and dedicate this winter for inspection and remediation.
Soave’s mast is not painted so my situation is different. My plan is to keep aluminum bare and use the oxidation layer to protect it. The main advantage I see to bare aluminum is the ease in inspection and remediation keeping maintenance in the realm of DIY.
I renewed the hanger pad-eyes on Soave’s wishbone last winter. HERE is a link to a photo album that explains the process of inspecting and renewing barrier layer between SS and aluminum.
Hope this helps… there are as many correct ways to maintain a boat as there are sailors.
Best of luck with your project, please share photos along the way.
Rob …
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I was probably one of those views, but I need to wait until I’m at my computer to answer in detail. I did some work on my mast a couple of years ago after lots of research and talks with Danny at Klacko Spars and Mike Quill. I’ll try and post what I learned later. In the meantime, my old posts about it should be around here somewhere or on the Google group.
I posted my mast work from last year earlier, but it is on the Nonsuch Google forum. A few pics and « watchouts ». I used a two part poly from Petit that flowed beautifully. That said, we have a 260 with fiber mast and boom. I will try to repost here.
FYI everyone,
Work’s in progress to get the Google Discussion Group contents copied over to here in the Discourse Nonsuch Forum. So, one-stop shopping is coming soon.
In the meantime, Google’s still accessible.
– Bob
Here are some photos I found. The Tides Marine Sail Track had been screwed directly into the mast, at the factory, in 1995, with no metal bracket; the great folks at Tides Marine helped me go through the steps of stripping the old track, filling and reinforcing the holes, drilling the holes, installing the metal track, and inserting the new track. Raising the sail is easy now.
The paint job was mostly sanding (carefully) and then applying the Petit EZ-Poxy; light coats work best.
I was quoted $12,000 to $15,000 to repair, rebuild, and repaint my mast. I did it for about $3000, more than half being the rigger’s time. I learned a lot.
The old track
There bottom of the old track, and the tired mast paint
Halfway through the job
Old holes filled with reinforced resin
Why you should use a mask, and not a new fire department cap.
New track installed
It’s impressive how much money can be saved by those with the courage to learn to do parts themselves, like you did, Richard.
Quick observation on the track fastenings Richard mentions.
Pretty much all the aluminum masts have fairly continuous 7/8 inch stainless steel track running all the way up. The track is screwed to a spacer that in turn is held to the mast with stainless steel bands for several feet going up from the bottom. Above that, it’s screwed directly to the mast.
On some carbon fiber masts, like his, either a Tides Track was screwed directly on, or just enough pieces of track were screwed on to allow a Tides Track to slide over them. On others, like mine, the stainless steel track was epoxied rather than screwed on.
– Bob
Hi there!, we sanded and painted our mast in 2019. We did the prep work to save money. The sanding part was obviously laborious, and we took everything except the sail track and mast joint bolts off the mast. We had the mast professionally sprayed by Peter’s Boat Repair in Niagara-on-the-Lake. He used an aluminum primer and Awlgrip paint (off-white). Looks awesome!