Get a mate and get him/her to hold one end whilst you hold the other end.

At the same time as each other shake the mast up and down whilst twisting in the opposite direction as your friend.

The mast should slowly come apart with the up and down motion in conjunction with the twisting and pulling motion.

Works every time ( famous last words ) !!!

Good luck.........

Don't bend it too much by standing on it etc. If you do, you might hear the "time for a new mast" sound. Speaking from experience here.

clamping 2 booms together one each side of the join might do the trick.

I did one recently with olive oil in the join and left if on the lawn for an hour. mate in the tyre business suggested the lube for fitting tyres

8 men (4 each side), twisting in opposite directions.

job done

10 men if not

12 etc

Four friendly kiters worked for me last time.

or alternatively, electrical tape twice around the joint before you go sailing and you'll never have the problem in the first place.

decrepit said...

evlPanda said...

Four friendly kiters worked for me last time.

I hope that never gets quoted out of context.

or with strings attached [}:)]

Classic

With the car method how do you attach the ropes or chains to the mast? I can imagine the rope just slipping off.

Leman said...

With the car method how do you attach the ropes or chains to the mast? I can imagine the rope just slipping off.

I'd sart off with a rolling hitch and rope. You can probably google it if you haven't tied one b4

Leman said...

With the car method how do you attach the ropes or chains to the mast? I can imagine the rope just slipping off.

What we did was: at the end where the mast was getting skinier we wrapped a heap of Duct tape around it and then the tied the rope there so it would not slip past the tape. Also the mast was 100% carbon so dodged a bullet there!!!

Two booms for the win! Thanks for the topic you saved us a lot of swearing

There's a better solution to stuck masts (that uses a bit of science that goes back to the dam busters in WWII, trivia fans!). And best of all works when there's no 2 booms or sixteen blokes handy, and a little easier on your gear than a truck & towrope.

Buy a rubber mallet for a couple of bucks at Bunnings (a heavy block of wood will suffice in emergency - nothing hard though - rocks are not your friend) and keep it in your gear box.

Hold the tip of the mast tight in one hand, about 6" from the top. Brace your hand against something handy [hoho!] (a fence post or your thigh will do). Make sure the other end of the mast is free, and not going to smack anything. If you have a brave mate, he can hold it.

With your other hand, whack the tip of the mast with the mallet as square as you can (like hitting a nail). Hard as you can - get that frustration out - very theraputic after a ** day sailing (though remember to take out any turban tip first)! The shock will run down the mast until it hits the join, then will gradually jar the mast ferrule out of the socket. Can take time, and can be slow if you've really sanded up the b*stard. But will eventually begin to work. You'll slowly see a gap open between the sections. Keep it up until you have a cm or so, then try twisting. Keep whacking until you get her free.

Seems to work better on fat masts than skinnys, but does work for both.

Sailhack said...

Most masts I've had would need gravel to make them stick, as they're not a tight fit! I passed the above suggestions on to a mate who had a 2-now-1 piece, on the weekend...

(I've got a couple of 2-now-3 piece masts in the shed)

Bugger! no, Double Bugger!
What precisely did you do to break them?