[chris95040]

Hi everyone, I'm new to the forum. A guy on "cruisersforum" pointed me in your direction.

I've got a Cheoy Lee Rhodes Reliant, a 41 foot yawl, and I've been considering replacing the spruce main mast for several years now. The mast, a box construction, has had some seams pop open here and there over the years, plus the effort of scuffing and varnishing every year, while nice in some ways, is just a little too much on a boat that already keeps me plenty busy. With a spreader breaking this year, and the varnish starting to separate, I'm looking at some serious effort this year and it might be time to make the switch.

Phil Rhodes drew up plans for both the spruce mast and an aluminum one, I've got copies of those plans. The masts are deck-stepped. The 45 foot tall aluminum mast was specified as 3/16" wall thickness, 5.5" x 9.25" oval section. He has it split in the center, at the spreaders, and internally sleeved. Its unclear to me if that was for increased strength or for ease of shipping from Cheoy Lee. The single set of spreaders are halfway up the mast.

Their are fore + aft intermediate shrouds that attach at the spreader base and cap shrouds that are inline with the mast, so there are 3 chainplates per side.

A benefit to going with Phil Rhodes' design is that I can just keep the chainplates where they are, I'm definitely not interested in modifying that. I've gotten a quote from Klacko for their K-43 section, which is the most comparable thing to Rhodes' specification, but I'm curious if I could get away with anything lighter (looks like that section alone at 45 feet weighs in at over 300 pounds.) She's a very tender boat and decreasing weight aloft would be a great benefit. My hunch is that going lighter would mean altering spreader arrangement, and ultimately altering chainplate arrangement, but I'm sure any riggers out there have already figured out I don't know WTF I'm talking about. :-)

I've also been contacting salvagers nearby (Rhode Island, USA) to seek out a less expensive option (used mast section), and maybe a professional rigger would be able to help sniff something like that out. A new mast will basically blow my boat budget for years to come.

In any event, I'm seeking advice on the project, and I'd be happy to hire a rigger to help me through this a bit.

Thanks everyone, and hello!

-Chris