Two years ago, I posted (above) that my poor BR20 wooden mast was looking like it had seen better days, having been ground away by the gunter jaws, especially at the first reefing position. The incident in the first photo below, where we were caught out with only one reef, probably had something to do with it. There was a metal shackle (since replaced) securing the jaw strop around the front of the mast, which did some of the damage where it rubbed against the mast under pressure. The second photo shows some of the result.
Despite Charles’s helpful suggestion, I was not confident enough in my skills to repair it properly without bodging it. I thought that I was going to have to buy a replacement mast in carbon fibre, as the yard no longer makes wooden ones. I tried to source a secondhand wooden mast without success.
Luckily North Kent (where I live) is a centre of wooden boat artisans.
https://www.alanstaleyboatbuilders.co.uk have taken on the task of making the mast better than new, at reasonable cost. The third photo below of work in progress shows epoxy-glassed reinforcing patches around the main areas of wear, so that damage is unlikely to happen there again. Matt had also suggested that idea.
Money saved, function improved, safety assured, cosmetics enhanced, waste avoided - what’s not to like? I was finally prompted to do something about the damage by a recent Roger Barnes video (him again) in which the top of the wooden mast on his Ilur snapped off
https://youtu.be/HmGd-N0FAGE?si=tAGCE87qGyvzkOUA. Alan Staley assured me that that was unlikely to happen to my damaged mast but I certainly didn’t want to take the risk for a third year running.
