hey all
i got a friend who has started in the hobby… and as per normal. he wants to jump in big time… he has 3 hulls in the works as we speak. so he has asked me. where go you find masts?
I have been using pine dowel. and I found a CF tube once from climate boat works( they no longer in bussiness)
does anybody know where to find 1/2 inch cf tube
I just bought telescoping part to make a mast from here:
or if you have a golf course nearby. old golf club shafts… a bit heavy for the smaller boats… or if you have a a lot fishermen… fishing pole blanks… but they can be a bit too flexible…
if you are looking for aluminum, you have sails ect. or Chesapeake performance http://www.rcyachts.com/
the kicker with the masts is that over 36" shipping becomes expensive as a result of the length, not weight. so buy enoug or get freinds to buy some to split the shipping…
Skycraft in Burlington has 1 meter lengths from 2mm up to 12 mm. I have built all my masts with their carbon, splicing up to make longer masts.
Grav
I have used Goodwinds a lot for my business in the past. However, their site doesn’t tell you if things are out of stock. After placing an order for 50-100 of a certain kind of shaft, I would get a call 2-3 days later from Leland telling me they didn’t have them. Usually, I would be left scrambling to get an order rushed through one of my backup suppliers.
They are great guys and I would use them again when time isn’t a factor.
My advice:
- Give them a ring first and see if they have what you are interested in buying.
- Have it shipped USPS (in the U.S.) UPS Ground from Oregon to St.Louis was taking about a week. It’s roughly the same price.
- Be prepared to ‘pay’ for shipping. The odd size tends to add a good deal on the ship cost.
Overall, I highly recommend them. Good folks.
Take care,
Matt
I’ve just bought a load of 14mm 12mm and 10mm from Hobby King. Price is excellent
Used or broken carbon fibre fishing rods.
Unbreakable. strong. Light. and free
the one issue with fishing poles, sometimes you may not get the diameter you need for a particular class rules, but also many fishing poles have much more flex than you may desire… the left/right flex can be dealt with spreaders and diamonds. the fore/aft bendy is quite another animal…
cross county ski poles where the basket at end of tip is broken off. Poles are usually wrapped carbon and built to be strong in compression over length of shaft.
Dick
golf clubs are another option…if you can find one that have not been broken in half by rapid contact with ones knee’s 
We’ve been making our own masts, after trying to use what was available we couldn’t find the right tube.
1.25"X.5" airfoil with internal boltrope groove.
A 93" tube weighs 7 ounces.
got any pics john…
Sharp contact with a knee! Good one.
I have ‘made’ a few of those. LOL. Well, a couple. Well, maybe a couple of aluminum ones. Carbon is too pricey to break. They stand up to a good ‘throw’ though!
I had a 5 wood that was unable to float after windmilling into a pond…and a 3 wood with a CF shaft that wrapped itself around the golf bag… new shaft was 30 bucks. I know how to reshaft and regrip…so not a big deal… felt much better afterwards…in both cases.
But neither outburst helped my game any and got my fellow golfers laughing at/with me…
there have been times I have wanted to stomp my sailboats into a bunch of little pieces… then I remember they are only doing what you told em to do…
I’ll take some this weekend & post them up. The mast we are doing is suited for boats 5’ loa and over.
They are built over a mandrel, vacuum bagged & post cured.
One cool feature is we can add fiber where we want (as opposed to a pultrusion)
They do require some finish sanding though as the outside layer is a peel ply finish.
well I am building a second Ec12. not like I could use it…since aluminum is the material of choice.
I’m just curious more than anything…
Hello,
I am very interested in this. How do you get the mast off the mandrel? What releasing agents do you use? I tried fiberglassing a dowel once, and then pulling a tube off of that for a rocket engine mount, but I could not get it off. Standard wax and pva. In my neck of the woods, there is not alot of carbon fibre available, and I would like to be able to do up my own masts, particularly for the iacc120’s in the cue. Plus I abhore buying something I could make. I make all my own hardware!
Kurt
Hey, just a nuby here, our club suggested replacement aluminum tent poles for backpacker tents that are available at any good outdoor shop like REI. They come in about 1 meter lengths and have an internal splice tube at one end to make longer sections. I found only two sizes that were close - one too large and one too small, so I took the smaller one as it was still quite stiff for the purpose and less windage.
Ian