What is the piece that the mast sits on that allows it to rotate called? It's a ring that sits on the mount that allows the mast to turn easily. Does anyone know where I can get get one?
go to your local plastics shop and have them cut one out . measure the diameter of the base and the diameter of the pin. 1mm. or 1/8 in thick. they can tell you what material will hold up best. have them make 2 while you are at it. store the spacer out of the sun if you keep the boat mast down.
marc
I cut the doughnut shaped shim out of a heavy duty (thick plastic) plastic detergent bottle. Have used it for several years without any issues.
I will try to get pic's this weekend.
I also have an issue. When I am tacking, the mast doesn't like to rotate by itself. I have to manually rotate the mast. Should I put grease on the bottom to fix this?
i have 2 solcats, and for both i use cut out pieces of heavy plastic (i used plastic from the bottom splashgaurd of a junk car i have sitting around) I used 2 different size hole saws to cut them out. I use 2 for each catamaran, and i sandwich grease between the 2 pieces. It holds up pretty well, is cheap, and easy to do. I store them in a ziplock bag with the rest of my gear. If you use 2 pieces and put grease between them the mast should very easily rotate.
mdslama wrote: I also have an issue. When I am tacking, the mast doesn't like to rotate by itself. I have to manually rotate the mast. Should I put grease on the bottom to fix this?
How tight are your shrouds? Does it seem like everything is loose enough but friction at the mast base is limiting rotation? Sitting on the beach, without the sail up, how hard is it to rotate the mast by hand? It should swivel easily.
mdslama wrote: I also have an issue. When I am tacking, the mast doesn't like to rotate by itself. I have to manually rotate the mast. Should I put grease on the bottom to fix this?
I agree with Damon, if the shrouds are too tight, that will make more difficult for mast to rotate. On my Solcat I have them set fairly loose (4th hole from the deck on the adjuster). It works fine whole season.
For the mast washer ring I used plastic from the bottom of the heavy duty bottle. No lubrication needed because plenty of water splash on it anyway.
also, this may be a silly suggestion, but make sure nothing is tangled up by where all the shrouds, forestay, trapeze wires, and jib halyard attach to your mast. It can seem like a confusing mess sometimes, so be sure your shrouds arent tangled up or crossed or anything, that might give you some issues.
not only the shrouds need to be loose for the mast to rotate in a tack
are you releasing a few feet of mainsheet too?
Edited by erice on Aug 18, 2012 - 08:34 PM.
🙄 Last weekend I added second 10 hole adjuster to the forestay that gave me extra 3" of length and raked the mast a little. It resulted in easier tacking but also affected gibb that ended up rigged higher (no opinon if is good or bad thing). For now it will stay that way for while untill I get use to it and than I will add even more rake to better see the difference.
whats your rake estimation? I'd like to lean mine back a bit more to get the bow up some. Venora's idea of the splash guard is awesome, softer plastic that will withstand the mast movement and not break like regular plastic.
Edited by josh1234 on Oct 05, 2012 - 12:32 PM.
Milk jug plastic works surprisingly well for this and is cheap.
Who cares if it wears out? You can make a dozen from one jug.