Fitting a new mast

[Andy Willis]

I have recently just purchased an MK2 Wayfarer that has been supplied with a new mast that has never been fitted! The mast retaining bolt appears to be a different size so I am going to have to make a new one. However my real question is in looking at the foot of the mast I wanted to understand how it was retained. It sits in a rail that allows fitting of pins but there only appears to be one that sits behind the foot of the mast! I wanted to understand if that was all that held the mast or if there should be one that sits directly in front of the mast.

Given the space I am not sure I would be able to get a pin in there without first removing the retaining rail, any ideas welcome.

Regards

 

Andy

 

 

[Dave Barker]

Hi Andy,

The single pin stops the mast foot from sliding too far back. There is no counterpart pin in front of the mast foot because this needs to be able to move forward when the mast is raised or lowered for transport or maintenance. The combined tension of the forestay and shrouds keeps the mast in position once it’s upright. The pin acts principally as a reference point to achieve the same rake angle each time the mast is raised.

(There’s quite a bit of additional information about this topic elsewhere in various other forum posts and in this article).

[Andy Willis]

Hi Dave,

That’s a great help thank you, I was hoping that was the case but wanted to check. 🙂

I will check out the article as suggested too..

 

 

[AUTHOR]

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