Need to repaint the Mast?

[Bob Mobley]

Hi,
We are planning on having our 1988/89 C34 trucked from the Bay Area to the Seattle area in late May.  Obviously the mast needs to be removed.   We redid the rigging 3 years ago but the mast and boom have never be repainted.  It seems like the logical time to do that if we are going to have it done.  There is a reasonable amount of corrosion that can be seen.  The cost seems to be between $3000 and $6000 for the repainting.   Repainting them on the Seattle end after it is moved would be the best option because of possible damage during shipping.   Obviously repainting the mast and boom is a significant amount of money.   How important is it that we have that done? 

Thanks for any comments. 

[Jim Hardesty]

Why not do it yourself?  I highly recommend Don Casey's "This Old Boat" how to book.  He goes into detail painting  aluminum spars in his second edition.  Check out at a library and copy a couple of pages.  But I think once you look through the book you will want it.
Having the mast packed for shipping, you have a lot of the work done.
Jim

[Ron Hill]

Bob : Anytime that you are in a salt water environment, you need to have a protective coating on an aluminum alloy mast and boom.

Do it yourself is an idea like Jim mentioned. 

Once the cost of repainting get over a few thousand dollars, you might get some pricing on new anodized spars!!    A thought

[Les Luzar]

Bob,
If the mast is structurally sound, it is all a matter of asthetics, and where you want to spend your boat bucks. It is just that simple. You can sand and touch up all of the areas in need with zinc oxide paint as a primer, and then cover with white paint. This is the easiest and least expensive way to improve the appearance of the mast. From a distance it will look fine. Up close you will be able to tell. But it is a lot less expensive and a lot less work. To repaint the entire mast and boom is a real financial and work commitment. You will have to remove all of the hardware, which will be a big job in and of itself, then sand the entire mast, then have it primed and painted. Then you will have to re-attach all of the hardware, used or new, your preference. It is obviousely your call, and your money. But you might ask yourself, how bad is the mast/boom? Are there other boat projects that you would like to do first? How long do you think you will you have the boat? Is it worth the money to you? It is beautiful to see a brand new painted mast and boom. If you can do most of the work yourself, you can save a lot of money and get the job done. If you have to pay for all of this work to be done, it will be very expensive. So in summary, only you can decide how to spend your boat money.... Your boat, your choice.

[Stephen Butler]

We painted our mast and boom last year, after a few years of doing just touch-ups. After a lot of study and getting quotes, we decided to "split" the job between what we could reasonably do, and what our yard could do.  In the end, we elected to have our yard remove the mast, prep, and Algrip the spars, and then re-install.  We did all the stripping of hardware and wiring from the mast (about 20 hours of careful drilling, punching, etc.), and all of the hardware and wiring replacement (another 15 hours and lots of ss rivets).  Also spent about a week shopping for bits and pieces.  Once the mast and boom were back aboard, we did the tuning.  In the end, we saved about 40 to 50 hours of yard time...a major $ saving. We went from several  $7K to $8K quotes plus materials, to a $2K crane, spray, and Algrip charge. We shopped and found some good prices for new hardware, ss rivets, new wiring, etc.   Another advantage for us was the chance to get a thorough view of the spars condition.  We did have a few spots that were much more corroded than we had thought.  As for pricing new spars as Ron suggested, we also investigated this option.  If we just had the yard redo the boom, a replacement boom would have been a close match pricewise.  As for a new mast, the cost would have been higher, plus transportation costs.  We found that most yards do not want to do spars and that they will often just send the work to a local spar shop, or use a sub-contractor on their site.  Hope this is of help.

[Bob Mobley]

Hi,
Thanks for the advice.   I ordered "This Old Boat",  it is not available in the library.   Yes, it sounds like lots of work to do it myself but it sure is a lot of money to have some else do all the work.

Bob