Has anyone had a mast stuck like this?
As you see we didn't get the mast apart down the bay man I have never seen such a stuck mast .
Ended up Dave & I went around Tims Hughes place this morning Tim made up 2 sleeves & we tried prying the mast apart with crow bars we got it apart a bit that way then ended up knocking it apart with a chisel & large hammer end result was good with no damage much to our surprize there was only a very small amount of grit in there all good now goes together good & comes apart.
Chisel and hammer 
I would not be using it too far offshore now, there could be micro cracking all around the ferrule so it's days are numbered.
Lots of booms next time, not shed tools 
I got mine stuck like that. Got some grit in it and couldnt get it off.
took it home in one piece, lashed one end (with 3 self tightening knotts) to a steel pole using a snatch strap and lashed the other end (same setup) to a 2 ton chain block which was attached to a tree.
very slowly loaded up the pressure on the 2 ton chain block (using sufficient damping material (towels) all over the mast and chain) and she slowly popped off.
worked great for another 2 years until I sold the mast.
Dont know how its going now...
I found out that attaching booms to each end and rotating them along with pulling apart makes it a very easy deal, as Mark already suggested.
Yer we tried the booms but didn't work we also tied hot water on the out peice but wouldnt work either.
Ekkie once got a mast apart with me by bending it one way to expose a tiny gap then put a thin blade or coin in the gap then bend it the opposite side and then put a slightly wider coin in the other side. Then bend it the other way and so on and on. It worked a treat. But that was a long time ago. Can you do that with modern masts I don't know but can't see why not.
...you would need some stronger guys to bend it than those wimps though.
Yep. Did this and took it to the store. They could not get it apart so Severne replaced it with a new one under warrantee.
my mast is a fairly tight fit and gets stuck more often than not. Spent a lot of one summer as a one piece. 4 booms wouldn't budge it.
I've had to many long swims from broken masts over the years to resort to WMD's.(chain blocks, hammers, chisels, Sh!t like that.) One day I tried directing a jet of water from the hose straight into the joint while wiggling the mast about. couple of minutes of this and it came apart easily by hand. Thing still gets seized, this works every time.
about 50 inch pounds vs 500 ft lbs
(to use the current vernacular)
in metric - a big fkn difference.
Ha ha, in the first week of november we call that the "sandy point shuffle", somebody (usually more than 1) always jams their mast :)
Why don't people make sure the ferrule is clean and tape the mast join before rigging? I use 50mm duct tape and never get any sand or grit in the mast. It takes all of about 2 seconds to do and has to reduce the chances of this happening
I managed to get one a apart using this contraption. The wet tea towel provided greater grip. I rotated one half of the mast with the boom and gradually increased the hold of the other half by tensioning the straps as required.
I suspect masts (with a grain(s) of sand) are the same as 2 white 20L buckets that are stuck together. You have to "break the seal" in the join to get them apart easily.
I had a mast stuck like this & it was really stuck.
A mate of mine put it under the water in the lake we were sailing in (about 30cm deep). I stood on the narrow (top) end. He had the bottom end and shook the mast up and down vigorously and pulled on it every so often as he shook.
We had it apart in about 1 minute with very little effort.
I was gobsmacked (I tape the join every time now and have never had it stuck since).
He commented that he had seen 4 people on each end of a mast and they still didn't get it apart.
Da vecta's method is similar in his post 6 from the top of this topic.
Try it next time and you will be surprised how easy it is.
Select to expand quotebarn said...
I still can't believe 3 booms per side, with a non slip between boom and mast, plus warming or cooling the joint, plus some bouncing, can't get a mast apart. Never seen it.
More bouncing and more booms. Water to cool it down as they come apart.
Somebody needs to measure the maximum torque that one quality* boom applies compared to one Clown twisting by hand.
Anybody with a torque wrench could set up a quick jig and report back?
I'm guessing one boom beats 8 blokes.
*must not slip and ignoring any damage.
Our olive oil trick works well too..
