The early fibreglass 2 piece North Masts were pretty good, although the blue wave mast was very stiff! I believe they were made by Exel. The thing that finally failed on the ones I had (and still have one somewhere) was the alloy ferrule. They corroded and failed at their base.

Talking of old masts, my original TC Spacer mast (1982?) had a whoppingt 55mm ID base diameter! It was huge!! And this was when the original WSOD was 45mm. In the mid '80's, the Europeans decided 48/48.5mm was to go (North, Exel, Rotho and Serfiac to name a few) and eventually everyone else followed. 48mm was pretty much the standard by the early 90's.

Sailquik, the ol TC SPACER! What a weapon. My first longboard back in '85 I think. I got bored of that thing in about 4 months. It flexed as much as a double plugger thong. Followed by an almost as useless Windsurfer Transformer. OMG weren't they the days. Bahahaha!!!

olskool said..
Sailquik, the ol TC SPACER! What a weapon. My first longboard back in '85 I think. I got bored of that thing in about 4 months. It flexed as much as a double plugger thong. Followed by an almost as useless Windsurfer Transformer. OMG weren't they the days. Bahahaha!!!

Yes, good times! I had a Windsurfer Transformer as well! actually, I had a lot of boards in the '80s. new ones kept coming out, the sport was booming and it was very easy to turn over the older one and get the never one! In no particular order, I also has a few different TC's, a few Windrush's, Waylar's, a couple of F2's, Reflex wave, many Tyronsea's, a couple of Cobra boards (my first expoxy boards - a speed needle, 290 Slalom and a Race), Waitata's, AHD's (early '90's.) 'SPEED' slalom and Race boards and quite a few different Polyester boards made by myself (most of which I still have). I was finally convinced to buy the newer WSOD when it came out with a 'retactable' CB, but that didn't last very long with me: Boring. I may have missed a few.

Yes if is not windy go catch fish Olskool

Gee earlier masts sounded like less standardization and those plastic flexy heavy boards!

Decrepit, would it be ok to remove sdm extension top. Then chop the shim part of the collar off. So mast seats on the collar shoulder. It would leave extension slightly loose at base of mast. Advisable??? No??

olskool said..
A bit off topic. But yep think ive got a complete Set of McGearys SPEED boards. Slalom world cup,Speed125, Speed250 n a couple of Speed F1s. Also have a Waitata lurkin amongst all the guff. The list goes on...... Ohh but thats a small collection n comparison to my fishing gear arsenal.

Speed SR 250L test from Freesail Jan Feb 1989:

olskool said..
Sailquik, the ol TC SPACER! What a weapon. My first longboard back in '85 I think. I got bored of that thing in about 4 months. It flexed as much as a double plugger thong. Followed by an almost as useless Windsurfer Transformer. OMG weren't they the days. Bahahaha!!!

I thought a single plugger would have flexed more , is that not why they went double

Ahh, RichardG. You read my mind! I am currently sitting by my scanner, scanning my old brochures, starting with the 1985 Cobra brochure.

I will start a seperate thread for them.

IMaxiiii, you're late!! Double plugger executives are the go. Get a size bigger than you normally use n just cruise across the soft sand like a pro. Imaxtrax for yr feet.Anyway, so coz most of the load of mast is in compression with little mis alignment it should be ok? Sounds like the Matrix5 mast is indestructo anyway.

olskool said..
Sailquik, the ol TC SPACER! What a weapon. My first longboard back in '85 I think. I got bored of that thing in about 4 months. It flexed as much as a double plugger thong. Followed by an almost as useless Windsurfer Transformer. OMG weren't they the days. Bahahaha!!!

A mate had a Spacer, a board I quite liked. He hacked the track till it work, put on a good Gaastra sail and a different centreboard, and it went pretty damn well. It couldn't beat a full on epoxy board that was well sailed, but a poorly sailed Raceboard or other plastic boards were normally well behind,

I'm lucky, I don't get bored with much gear unless it's too limited in its wind range.

^ TC Runner was a better board than the Spacer. Noticibly stiffer n quicker n much better graphix. Both no match for a SR250L. Epoxy vs Roto polyethylene. Baboinnggg..... Gee why don't the use that stuff anymore??

olskool said..
Decrepit, so use rdm to adjust length n slip sdm sleeve over the top to shim mast Gotcha.. I've got all the bits. Now where is that angle grinder.

No not and RDM, an SDM chinook with the shims removed for the kilwell and with an old sdm over the converted chinook for the SDM.

sailquik said..
I found this in the 1985 Cobra Brochure I posted in another thread. This refers to the 'extremely leewardly stiff' mast with carbon strips up each side. You can just see them in the photo:

Rotho Duo mast ? Looks like that mast.