Bent Mast

During a strong wind storm, my 16 was sent for a tumble. The mast sustained some damage. It has a small dent on the port side and is no longer straight. Just wondering if the mast needs to be replaced or if it is possible to straighten it and sail it despite the dent in the mast?

Would welcome any suggestions and feedback.

Dents are not good...

A dent (depending on where it is on the mast) can be the source of a failure. It creates a kind of focal point for pressures. Imagine an egg that is intact and another one with a dent in the shell. The egg is very strong until the shell is compromised.

A bend is not necessarily a reason to replace on its own though. After all, the mast bends when in proper use. Soft (or slight) bends can sometimes be straightened.

_________________
Matt Miller
Former - Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Warranty and Technical Support
Hobie Cat USA
(Retired 11/7/2022)

Looked at boat today to purchase for my sons. One thing wrong is the mast is bent at about six foot from the base, to port, out about 1-1/2".

Although there are a couple of scratches in the anodizing in that area on the port side, you cannot call it a "dent". I'd guess this to be a soft/slight bend.

What method or suggestions to get this mast "close" to straight again.

_________________
hobiejohn at earthlink dot net
Fleet 297

There's a sailor in the Getaway forum who straightened his mast. I can't remember exactly how he did it but I think it involved hanging it from the rafters in his garage and hanging weights from the part where it's bent. Something like that.

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Warm regards,

Jim

Be really careful when bending back a bent mast. Aluminum will become hard and brittle and break if you push it too far. Also remember most of the masts strength in compression comes from the shape of the extrusion.

As Matt said, dents are very bad. When the mast is under compression it it like a corrugated piece of paper holding up a book. As long as the paper has no flaws in the corrugation it will work fine. IF you disturb (dent) it in one spot the whole thing will collapse. That dent in the mast will cause the compression loads to not be distrubuted uniformly around that section of the mast. The most likly failure you will see is the mast buckling towards that dent. What I mean is the dent will be the vertex of where th mast will bend when it buckles.

The mast sees some of the highest, if not the highest, compression loads on the boat. Think really hard about this before deciding what you want to do. I would play it safe and get a new mast section and replace all of the hardware.

Good Luck

_________________
Nick

Current Boat
In the market
Previous boats owned
'74 Pearson 30
'84 H16
'82 H18 Magnum
St. Louis, MO

It was in the 16 forum.



I'm going to give it a shot. I successfuly straightened a 2-iron shaft, using the same principal, and it was kinked, but also S/S.

Anyone close to KC have a mast they don't need (i.e. for sale)? My friends in Clear Lake have one, but it's an eleven hour round trip.

Another thought, Comp tip. The dimension for H16 cut is 18'-3 3/4", I see spec'd mast height as 26'-6". It would take redrilling for lots of hardware, a "new" sail entry slot and re-installing the base as well, but if I can cut off somewhere past say 6'-3" from the base we'd still have enough good extrusion left. Now is that 26'-6" from the base to the very top of sheave or just the extrusion? Anyone have a 16 mast in the backyard they can measure the extrusion only?

_________________
hobiejohn at earthlink dot net
Fleet 297