Has anyone tryed to use Cross Country ski poles for an IOM mast or even any other RC boat mast?
Yes -
I have used a section on my 1 Meter multihull, and also have a sleeved section for my F-48 multihull that is roughly 7 feet tall.
If you use ski poles, be sure to use the ones for competition, as they are made strong, and are purposly designed for stiffness so when a skier pushes back they don’tbend or deflect. Any deflection while racing cross-country (in my former life when younger) was wasted energy.
Try a local sporting goods X-C shop that caters to racers - and ask for any discards with broken tips. They are stiff enough you can probably get away with spreaders or shrouds to prevent bend - with the added benefit of being tapered! If you “must” purchase new, I think there are other places where tapered carbon tubes are much less expensive. All depends if you know a racer or someone at a local shop.
I tried manufacturers and did find one willing to send me about a dozen with broken tips - but more often the thought was they didn’t want to let broken prototypes out since a lot of the good skiers that may have used and then broken them were using R&D poles.
Good luck.
The attached photo shows the ski pole mast with a Marblehead mainsail on it - but before it was trimmed to length. As you can see it reaches from floor to ceiling - about 8 foot in length (96 inches)