Thanks Brian,
Good point about the aluminum, the reason I mentioned it is because the mast came with fairing plates of some kind of cast aluminum. They don't seem to have caused damage yet, but the rig has only been up, and the boat has only been in the water a couple of years. Now I remember that About a month ago, I rescued a couple of cheek blocks from a friend of mine's boat. They had been mounted with aluminum spacers, and the aluminum had expanded. It warped the plate on the blocks, and put a good sized (probably permanent)ding in the fiberglass underneath. the aluminum itself had turned into a flaky substance that looked like a good pastry crust. But no, I didn't taste it. So, UHMW it is. Which is fine with me, I can radius it to fit the mast much easier than I could aluminum. And, I will go ahead and replace the aluminum plates.
Thanks for the tip on that Tef-Gel . I'll get some of that and try it. I have been using one of the varieties of Loctite, the blue for screw threads, and either the red or the green for rivets. Of course, if I want to count on pulling the screws out, I just go ahead and Heli-coil them right from the start. That stuff seems to have held up fairly well, but I haven't been able to follow it for all that many years.
Best wishes, Tom
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