Mild Steel Mast Furniture, scantlings compared to bronze

[Bott]

Hello,

I am re-doing the rig on my gaff cutter and came to the conclusion that I need a different arrangement of lugs on the mast band where the shrouds attach. Specifically, I want another lug added to the aft side for the swifter shrouds to attach.

The current band is 6" in diameter, 1.25" tall, and ~5/16" thick. The local welders I talked to were reluctant to try to weld/braze a new lug on the existing one, because I don't know what the specific alloy of the band is now.

So I am thinking of making my own out of mild steel, and have found a good starting point from heavy-duty pipe hangers, mild steel (a36 I believe), with basically the same dimensions as the bronze band but 1/4" thick. Then I can have lugs welded on from there, whatever dimensions I need (probably thicker just to have a good landing area on the band itself).

Does this sounds like a workable solution, scantlings-wise? The boat is ~20,000 lbs with ~800 sq ft of working sail. The band is also well supported underneath by 4 bolster blocks. From there, I would either have the piece galvinized or maybe powder coated. But its going to be ~40' in the air pretty far from the salt water.

Thanks for any opinions shared!

Eric