I am planning on using Spartite this Spring to hopefully end the perennial mast leak. Can anyone who has done this tell me how much they purchased to complete the job? It is expensive and I don't want to buy the large kit if the small kit is enough but I also don't want to come up short doing the project. I have a 1988 standard mast. Thanks in advance for any help.
Brian McPhillips
Brian,
WADR, please type Spartite in the search box. And read away. If you haven't done that already, that is.
Buy the large kit... That said the clay they supply for the dam is HORRIBLE.. I wind up using Gorilla Tape inside the boat then butyl tape as the primary dam... The last kit I got the clay was so hard that even after 20 minutes of kneading with more water added it could not be sufficiently softened enough to make it work. Owner was standing right there and was horrified at the crappy quality of the clay in the kit... Also be sure to back the Spartite up with an SSI mast boot!!
IMHO I am not a fan of Spartite though I have done more than I care to shake a stick at. On my own boat I use a solid extruded rubber shim I purchased from McMaster Carr in the correct thickness......
What's the problem with traditional oak wedges or the hard rubber shims that MaineSail uses? If you are having leak issues, a good mast boot and some caulking in the track (and a sunbrella top cover/mast boot) should solve any leak issues. The Spartite seems like a potentialy messy/expensive situation and it could be problematic when you want to remove mast.
We did Spartite on our 1989 C34 and used the large kit. No problem with the mast coming out of the boat but you have to lubricate the partners with Vaseline. The clay in our kit was fine - no problem molding it to the opening from down below and no leakage. It stopped the water leakage into the boat once we applied a bead of sealant where the Spartite contacted the mast. We went with Spartite because we always had problems with the wooden/rubber wedges staying in place.
After 10 years of ownership, I have given up on mast boots. Every time it rains my salon table has a puddle. My hope is that the Spartite option would be better as it couldn't be any worse than what I have now. I have had wooden wedges for years but they seem to loosen and fall into the cabin floor from the minor movements of the mast under sail. I'll go with the larger kit and hope for the best. Thanks for the input.
Sounds like two problems: 1. wedges falling out; Spartite should remedy? 2. Leaking around mast; not sure Spartite will solve this. I would think a mast boot and caulking around it and the mast groove would still be required to stop leaking? Caveat: I haven't used Spartite. I did read that if you apply mold release (Vaseline?) around partners, prior to pouring mixture, it should eliminate my previous concerns about possible later problems removing mast. Keep us posted on how it goes.
POOR MAN'S SPARTITE
Jim Brener wrote this up years ago. Stuff large diameter line between the mast and the partners above the wedges. Apply liberal dose of silicone caulk, plus, as Noah points out, in the track. Cover with mast boot, seal top of mast boot, cover with Ron Hill's sunbrella cover. Done. No vaseline required.
One of the reasons we went with the Spartite is that we could not insert anything into the opening from the top because of the mast boot - the mast boot would slide up only a couple of inches because of interference from a mast fitting. We probably would not have gone through the hassle of Spartite if we could have inserted wedges or wrapped rope around the mast from the top. Spartite solved both the mast bracing and the leaking issues for us but we did have to apply a bead of sealant to make it completely waterproof (as Spartite indicates in the directions).