This may be a stupid question, but here I go anyway... I have an early 80's Nacra 5.0. My wife at times gets a bit concerned about the weight of the mast while we raise it. Did the aluminum masts get lighter with more recent editions or did they stay about the same per ft?
Thanks.
Mast weight
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Posted: Jun 02, 2011 - 08:10 PM
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Posted: Jun 02, 2011 - 08:56 PM
Performance used the same aluminum mast section for all the 5.? boats. I believe they are somewhere around 60-80 lbs total for a 28-30 ft mast. The real problem you are likely experiencing isnt the total weight, it's the leverage when bringing it up in the arc from the back of the boat to full upright. One trick I use is I rest the mast on a 10 ft step ladder at the rear beam. This lets me get on the tramp and lift while my wife pulls on a line attached to the forestay to raise it the rest of the way. Much easier than lifting it from the beam level.
Another thing that can help is making a gin pole at the front of your trailor, basically a 10 ft pole with a pulley at the top that you lash to the mast support on your trailor. Run a line through the pulley and to the forestay and have the second person pull while stepping, it gives them a much better mechanical advantage and makes it much easier for you to lift the mast.
There are ready made gin pole setups like the mast Stepper (1-3) and EZ Step. With a mast stepper III you can raise the mast solo in the rotated positon.
The most costly option is if you can find a carbon mast (about 30 lbs). Some Nacra 5.5s had them as an option and they may have been an option on the other boats too. Unfortunately the cheapest one I have ever seen was more than $2000 used and carbon masts usually run about $5000 or so (not worth it).
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Dave Bonin
1981 Nacra 5.2 "Lucile"
1986 Nacra 5.7 "Belle"
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
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Posted: Jun 02, 2011 - 08:57 PM
Newer boats probably don't have any lighter masts, but older boats might have much heavier masts... If they are full of water!
It's not that uncommon for a mast to collect a good amount of water due to both leaks and condensation. If you can compare to another similar mast and it seems a lot heavier, or if you can notice any water movement when tilting it back and forth it might be worth opening up the ends to check.
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Damon Linkous
1992 Hobie 18
Memphis, TN
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