Teflon mast wear strips

189402

Chris
Hi,

I notice that my lower mast, which is only nine months old, is showing quite a lot of wear at the bottom two inches at the front and the same on the back of the mast at just below deck level (same for the mast tube). Nothing really unusual here, caused by sand, grit etc.. and sailing with lots of vang/kicker. I've seen a few posts on TLF about Teflon wear stips to protect both the mast and mast step from this type of wear, here in the UK we can buy Teflon disks for the base, but not for the mast/mast tube. I'm thinking about buying some Teflon (PTFE) 1mm sheet to make my own. Before I go down this route does anyone have any comments or suggestions ? maybe they are not available in Europe for a reason ? Maybe they are not good for speed ? The rules state that you can use/make a sleeve using 1mm (max) thick material which must go no higher than 10mm above the top of the mast tube, but can you use two separate strips (one at the top and one at the bottom) ? It must affect mast rake a little, this coud be good or bad depending on your current mast rake. Any comments etc...are appreciated. Thanks.
This is the link I saw for the stips available in the US :- http://www.westcoastsailing.net/default/boat-parts/laser/accessories/mast-wear-strip.html
 
(Slight aside but) I cannot see how lots of kicker/vang would affect the wear on the mast/mast step/tube.

Ian
 
Thinking about it some more - the vang probably has nothing to do with the wear on the mast as all the vang tension is contained on the mast (unlike some other dinghies where the controls and led onto the hull.
The wear on the mast is most likely attributed to sailing with max mainsheet tension when the mast foot is pushed as far forward as it can go and the rear of the mast pulled against the back of the mast tube. This is made worse if sailing off sandy beaches where sand always finds a way into the mast tube. I hope that makes more sense.
 
This topic comes up often and there are many who have would a better chance of responing to your thread if it was moved from Laser Class Politics to Laser Sailing :)
Best of luck, Eric
 
I have been looking in the UK and cant find any UHMW tape for this
If you find a UK suppler / solution please let me know because I am about to recoat the inside of my mast tubeand would like to stop it wearing again if poss
 
I have been looking in the UK and cant find any UHMW tape for this
If you find a UK suppler / solution please let me know because I am about to recoat the inside of my mast tubeand would like to stop it wearing again if poss

I found a supplier of PTFE tape with an adhesive backing, problem is they want over £50 for a 30m roll. I asked for a sample and hope they will send enough to put around my mast. If it works out OK I might buy a roll and see if I can sell some to the UK/Europe Laser community. The tape I hope to receive is 0.25mm thick and about 60mm wide.This is quite thin but I found that 1mm thick Teflon sheet was too thick.

Any opinions on whether having two stips of Teflon around the mast is class legal ? The rules seem to indicate you can use one "sleeve" of uniform thickness 1mm or less.
Thanks.
 
Have never really worried about the wear there. Whenever I have had a mast snap it has been around the kicker tang or the top section rivet so I don't think it can have that much of a negative impact.
 
Just as an aside - PTFE sheet is widely available, I recently purchased a small 200mm x 300mm sheet of 1mm thick PTFE from Ebay for the grand sun of £5.50 (including postage). That's enough to cut out at least 13 of the 60mm discs that sit in the mast pot - I just cut the discs out with a strong pair of scissors,

Nigel
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Just as an aside - PTFE sheet is widely available, I recently purchased a small 200mm x 300mm sheet of 1mm thick PTFE from Ebay for the grand sun of £5.50 (including postage). That's enough to cut out at least 13 of the 60mm discs that sit in the mast pot - I just cut the discs out with a strong pair of scissors,

Nigel
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Nigel,

Yes, the PTFE sheet is easy enough to get hold of. I also bought some and cut my own discs and managed to cover the cost of the sheet by selling a few to other club members :). The tape is hard to get hold of in small (short) quantities. I'll keep checking on ebay and hope to get an end-of-roll to experiment with.
Cheers,
Chris
 
Sailorchick - I am less worried about the wear on the mast than I am about my worn mast step - I am assuming (maybe wrongly) that if I tape the mast with something suitably slippy it will wear the maststep less
 
If you are looking for teflon tape, a good place to look for some is try to find somebody that sells industrial packaging supplies. This type of tape is used with "Shrink Wrapping Machines". Or, find someone who shrink wraps their product and I guarantee they will have some of that tape!

Good Luck,

Jerry
 
I have found that the wear strips lock the mast so you cannot gybe freely in light air. Everything is way too tight. I have removed the strips and thrown them in the trash. I keep sand out of the mast step, and spray the inside of the step and the mast itself with McLube. This works incredibly well for gybing, and probably reduces wear. I apply McLube probably every 6th sail or so.
 
I have found that the wear strips lock the mast so you cannot gybe freely in light air. Everything is way too tight. I have removed the strips and thrown them in the trash. I keep sand out of the mast step, and spray the inside of the step and the mast itself with McLube. This works incredibly well for gybing, and probably reduces wear. I apply McLube probably every 6th sail or so.
Hi
Yes, those original mast wear strips seem to be not thin enough. I mentioned at another reply* at TLF a foil ~ made out of "Hostaphan" foil. Hostaphan is durable, thin and quite equal to "UHMW"-foil. Usually the boatbuilders take it during the gelcoating process at yachting repairs. I got it from a sailing mate, so I can't say where to buy it professional, a big yachting-shipyard or a wholesaler for marine parts, perhaps?

*Here is the reply I mentioned above and only the photos are relevant for this thread here. With this tube, made out of this Hostaphan foil, there is no wearing anymore at the surface of the mast tube. The foil I use, doesn't hinder the agility/mobility of the mast inside of the mast tube, because it is thin enough. Under the mast I put the white PTFE disk. Additionally, yes, spraying McLube to the foot of the mast step is nice, but not a need.

http://www.laserforum.org/showpost.php?p=132246&postcount=6

I never would sand the maststep, except to put new gelcoat or epoxy on, in reason it impairs the longgtime-durability of the mast tube in general.

Ciao
LooserLu
 
I have found the teflon strips which are sold by APS to be quite effective in reducing the wear on the top-aft and bottom-forward areas of the tube. The strips themselves are about 2 mm thick, so it is an increase of 4 mm to the diameter of the mast - no big deal if you ask me. As for its adverse effect on light air gybing, I have not seen any; but then again, I'm not sure if I could tell the difference. If this is a concern, then I might try some McLube prior to insertion. IMHO the big advantage to using them on an older boat is that the gelcoat is usually gone (worn away) from the bottom-forward part of the mast. The strips will distribute the force to a larger unworn area just above the bottom of the tube. Thus, the larger the area, the lower the force-per-unit-area.
 
I have found the teflon strips which are sold by APS to be quite effective in reducing the wear on the top-aft and bottom-forward areas of the tube. The strips themselves are about 2 mm thick, so it is an increase of 4 mm to the diameter of the mast - no big deal if you ask me. As for its adverse effect on light air gybing, I have not seen any; but then again, I'm not sure if I could tell the difference. If this is a concern, then I might try some McLube prior to insertion. IMHO the big advantage to using them on an older boat is that the gelcoat is usually gone (worn away) from the bottom-forward part of the mast. The strips will distribute the force to a larger unworn area just above the bottom of the tube. Thus, the larger the area, the lower the force-per-unit-area.

I put the wear strips on a new boat and it locked the mast. I just use McLube, and that's it. Keep the tube clean and McLubed. Boats don't last forever, but it should last long enough.
 
I put the wear strips on a new boat and it locked the mast. I just use McLube, and that's it. Keep the tube clean and McLubed. Boats don't last forever, but it should last long enough.

Interesting, I've never had that happen. Was it when you were two-blocked?

Nevertheless, the strips should help reduce the gelcoat wear on the bottom forward end of the tube.
 
Apologies for bringing up an old thread. I am looking into this as I and others have noticed that our new carbon ILCA6 masts seem to rub the mast step more than the original and also 'thicker' (i.e. the area rubbing is about an inch as opposed to a 1cm before).

I am now considering something like these Protect Your Laser with the Laser PROtect Tapes Kit

My question is, do these impact the mast rake much?
 

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