Dings in mast groove

happy life skills foundation (hapilife@efn.org)
Thu, 8 Jul 1999 13:29:31 -0700 (PDT)


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West Wight Potter Website at URL
http://www.lesbois.com/wwpotter/
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Hi web folks!

a few weeks ago i dropped my mast on the dock while changing shroud pins
(took out the first pin and just let go of the shroud....duh, wasn't
thinking i only had three wires holding up the mast and....boom!). At the
time the only damage I noticed was the windex got destroyed and sank
immediately into the drink. That was replaced.

Last night on rigging the boat I noticed about 80% of the way up the mast
that there was a ding in the groove...it was narrower for a few inches.
explained why sometimes it's hard to get the sail all the way up. We
unstepped the mast. I used the widest screwdriver i had and opened it back
up again pretty close to original width, got out my leatherman file,
smoothed out any bumps nicks etc, then borrowed some 220 grit from the
guys down the slip to further smooth out the groove so as not to hurt
the sail.

Didn't feel like this was the best way to do this tho'...any tips on this
sort of damage? I was thinking if I'd had a vice grips and a piece of wood
it would've been repaired with less smoothing to do later...like taking a
dent out of a bicycle rim.

I'd appreciate any and all advice/comments etc. on this subject.

Thanks!
Ken Silverman, "Vegan Lorax"