mental floss
Member
My mast base came off and the cork was destroyed. What should I do about replacing the cork?
Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature currently requires accessing the site using the built-in Safari browser.
There is a hole in the base cap. Do you close that also?As sailcraftri wrote, air is the best/cheapest replacement for the cork.
Some have drilled a hole in the bottom cap for drainage. However, it's better to properly seal both caps and not have any water enter the mast.There is a hole in the base cap. Do you close that also?
Some have drilled a hole in the bottom cap for drainage. However, it's better to properly seal both caps and not have any water enter the mast.
No need for a swim noodle. Air is lighter.It's important to have a sealed mast. Any oversight can result in "turtling" the boat upon capsizing. Whether the water is deep— or especially when it's shallow—this can ruin one's day on the water.
As it weighs practically nothing, I cut a swim noodle lengthwise to fit, squeezed it smaller with a few turns of masking tape, gave it a shot of WD-40 and struggled to pull it through my near-identical Porpoise II mast.
Maybe there's a swim noodle sized to fill the mast's interior perfectly.
The cap is a tight fit. Use a sealer anyway.
Your mast should measure exactly ten feet. Perhaps there'd been a cut/repair with a wood insert?
Does the "sticky" end appear cut with a pipe cutter? (Which would make it smaller--and a tighter fit). I'd suggest cutting off 1/4" with a hacksaw.
Could you be seeing a large cork--not wood--a cork being a standard part from the manufacturer?
My fish is a 78 and the mast has a black cap that fits inside the mast.I have to resurrect this thread. My mast has no base cap, but I can see the wood insert a couple of inches in. I have a new mast cap, but it is slightly too large to fit. I did some manual sanding but couldn't get it to fit. I looked down the mast stem and can see what looks like a reinforcement of some kind. The Sunfish is a 1978; did it come stock with no base cap and a mast insert of some kind? Thanks for any advice.
Not the ONLY solution. Aluminum is malleable, so a steel pipe or rod of 1" diameter can be rolled forcefully inside (against the very edge) to widen the opening. Manual exhaust pipe straighteners are another option.Yes, it is cork. I just found elsewhere in the forum that newer sunfish masts have a larger inner diameter than the old ones. So, new mast caps don't fit. Only solution is to laboriously sand down the new cap until it fits. Thank the Lord that I don't have any other hobbies.
Thanks—that answers my previous question of the I.D. of a Sunfish mast.I'm getting 2.04 inches on a old mast cap. Anyone have a new one to measure?