Touch-Up Painting for Mast and Boom

[Stephen Butler]

We are sure this has been covered before, but cannot seem to locate the thread.  We need to do some touch-up painting on our keel stepped mast and the boom.  We have some "bubbling" starting in the original factory paint job (white) and need to sand and repaint in a few spots.  Wondering if we should go with a 2 part or single part coating, and what we need to avoid in order to get a reasonable job.  Thanks for the advice.

[Ron Hill]

Steve : I've found that Interlux "white" is a perfect match for the mast/boom white that Catalina used.  Comes in a pint can from West Marine.   

[Rick Johnson]

I need to touch up several spots on my mast also where the PO had something resting against the mast.  There was a good article in Good Old Boat about touching up the mast.  I remember that it suggested an acid etch and then Awlgrip 545 primer.  I don't remember what type of paint was suggested, but I'll look for the story and can try to email it to you.  The awlgrip 545 is fairly expensive.

Cheers

[Ron Hill]

The Interlux I mentioned above is not a 2 part like the Enron(sp?) paint used by the factory.   

[Stu Jackson]

We've had success with a spray can of white from Ace hardware.

[Mike Denest]

Mast removal, inspection, clean and treat corrosion, strip and repaint is on my to-do list.  Has anyone done this and what was the approximate costs involved?

[Stephen Butler]

Pulling the mast is also on our to-do list, and we have been out getting prices.   So far the quotes have ranged from a low of $1,500, to a high of $5,500!  Most yards say it is a 4 to 5 day job, to pull the mast, remove the fittings, sand, prime, and re-paint with a 2 part coating(sprayed), re-mount the fittings, and reinstall the mast.  The prices would include the mast and boom.  The biggest part of the job seems to be removing the fittings, most of which will have to be drilled out, or so we are told.  So, it looks like a 30 to 40 hour job and at todays yard rates, it costs.  As we have three months of vacation each year, we are seriously looking at doing the job ourselves, less of course removing and replacing the mast.  One thought is to pull the mast while the boat is in the water, so we can still live aboard and stay out of hotels while we do the work.  Will let you know the outcome.

[Ron Hill]

Steve : When I pulled my mast we did it with a fork lift and the boat stayed in the water.  We stayed at the marina on the boat and worked on the mast for a couple of days. 
Look at my "Mast Pulling check list" in a Mainsheet article, did that with Phil Imhof who pulled his mast every year.  Not a traumatic thing to do.

Kind of funny, as the marina put my C34 in a covered slip!!  Boy is it dark inside the boat inside a covered slip!!
You might think about some new standing rigging.  The factory gives the best price, but wants your old wire as a pattern.  You'd be good to go for another 15years when you get the mast back in.  Think about it.       

[JMansfield]

I have replaced the standing rigging and repainted the mast in the past 3 months, for what it's worth this is what it ran $$ wise:

Standing rigging:  local rigger replaced all rigging using Norseman fittings.  Cost: $2200

Repaint Mast:  Yard stripped, etched, primed and painted mast.  Cost $800 + tax for labor and materials.  I did everything else.

With the assistance of the crane operator, I unstepped the mast.  I stripped all hardware and fittings from the mast.  After the mast was repainted, I reassembled all hardware and fittings and prepared the mast to be restepped.  Again with the assistance of the crane operator, we stepped the mast and rerigged the standing rigging.  Crane charges were $250 + tax. 
Total cost to repaint mast $1100+.

It took a full day to strip the mast.  Drilling out the SS rivets is no problem with a good set of bits.
The SS collar the boom attaches to... I had to use a impact hammer to remove the screws.  This took a couple of hours.  Removed the masthead VHF antennae fittings, windex fittings, anchor light, etc.  Pulled halyards and ran messenger lines.

Also took a full day to reassemble the mast fittings, replace VHF antennae, anchor light, windex etc.... took several hours to fish the halyards back through the mast as some idiot at the yard apparently thought the halyard messenger lines I had run were just loose strings and pulled them.
I used a lot of Lanocote when reassembling the mast hardware.

In summary, stripping the hardward from the mast and reassembling it isn't rocket science by any stretch but it is a LOT of work.