Happiness is a Straight Stick!

[John Cyr]

In the for what its worth catagory, for anyone following my other thread, I was able to have my E25 mast straightened. I was given some inspiration from other members experiences here so I consulted a rigger about sleeving. He recommended we try straightening it first. I was sceptical to say the least and he made no guarantees but since there were no kinks (it was a minor bend, only about 3" out of plane (tip to tip unstayed) just enough to be noticable and therefore annoying.) he felt he could do it safely, which he did. The only thing hurt was my wallet, he charged me abit more than I expected. Warranteed the work tho so thats a plus!

 

[Gmilburn]

Details

So John--please give us details as to how they did it--and if you dont mind my being nosey--how much it set you back?

In my younger days, I ran into an electrical wire with my Hobie 16 on a trailer (we were trying to get off the water as a storm blew in) and it burnt thru my forestay. I was extremely lucky, as my mast dropped straight back and no one was hurt--but it left a 3 inch bend in it. I had a couple of seasoned Hobie sailors take it and wedge it between two trees and straightened it out quite nicely. I would NEVER have allow them to do it--save for the fact that considerable alcohol was involved! Oh those were the days, when you could sail all day and drink all day--and still make Monday morning college classes!

Anyway, forgive my digress. Im just glad you were able to get it straightened!

 

[John Cyr]

I think he used the same 2 trees and drunks.

Seriously, he did say he built a form to keep the section from collapsing (ditto the mainsail track) strapped it to a couple hardpoints (didnt see any trees in his shop ?) and used a comalong of sorts. He would go into no furthur detail (trade secrets I guess) He charged me 380.00 which was a little more than i expected. The mast is straight now tho (even the sail track tunnel is straght as an arrow) so I cannot bitch too much.