Yousurf said...
Rosey, aus301, thewindmap, DavMen, sharkbiscuit and easty taught me a good lesson.
tape your mast before you go out.
stops sand and crap from getting into the joint.
makes it easy to get undone, and stops the sandpaper effect on the part that goes into the top end, which grinds it down.
I don't see how sand would get in your mast joint while sailing? its halfway up the luff sleeve so you gotta be doing something pretty wrong to get sand all the way up there, and then into your mast joint.
I think most of the problem is people not taking care when rigging, heck I've seen people leverage the end of the mast into the ground to force it into the sail. If you make sure the joint is clean before you rig then no problems. Taping is pointless in my opinion. I never tape, and my mast always comes appart easy, occasionally the top half even remains in the sleeve when I derig.