Mast alignment in mast partner

[Ian McColgin]

I live with wooden boats where sometimes things move and sometimes you want to move the rig about a little so:

You referr to 'mast step' but the place where the mast goes through the deck is the partners. The step is where the mast lands at the bottom. Many steps are absolutely where they are, period. But some have a little adjustment fore and aft via wedges or a screw.

Further complicating is that the scantilings for a deck stepped mast are usually a bit heftier than for keel stepped as the deck stepped lacks the support that comes from the partners.

Further, the partners give you a way to craft a bend in the mast that you can't do so interestingly.

We woodenboat types don't like poured wedges. We make wedges that fit the way we set the mast, which is sometimes a bit at varience with how the builder made the step to partners alignment.

I'm going to assume from your question that neither you nor your rigger has any interest or expertise in using the partners as part of bending the mast, so cutting to the chase: Brion has some excellent info on how to tune the rig. Do that on a nice day - breeze but not so much wave action that the mast pumps and you can do it with the wedges out. Get it right. Then wedge.

Gluck

G'luck