Select to expand quote
NotSailingYet said..
Replacing wooden dinghy mast
I'd like to replace the wooden mast/boom on a mirror dinghy with an aluminum/alloy one. Does anyone have any experience doing this? or can someone recommend a place I could buy such a thing? Would need to be fairly generic I imagine. Also needs to be in Brisbane. thank you
Original Mirror rig was a gaff rig (mast and gaff) so the two spars could be readily put on a car roof rack.
I assume you're looking to go to just an aluminium mast? Perhaps the easiest would be to use alloy spars from a similar size boat - (ie an 11 footer - original Mirrors were 10ft 10 inch LOA from memory).
Perhaps a Heron or Puffin Pacer or similar, if you can find that. You'd likely still need to cut shrouds/forestay to fit or make-up new ones.
Also as I recall the mast step in a mirror was a square hole maybe 2 inches by 2 inches (or inch and half by inch and a half?) in a strip of ply on the foredeck (actually two holes as you could also step the past forward and rig without a jib). Presumably any new mast would have to have a locating piece on the bottom to fit into the step,
You'd likely also need to replace or recut the main sail as moving from gaff to bermuda rig the original sail may not sit well. Also as I recall while there was a luff groove in the gaff, the sail was laced to the mast below that (could be a false memory it was 50+ years ago I last sailed a Mirror).
Just some thoughts
Q
NotSailingYet
> 9 months ago, 11 Jul 2024
