mast

Anyone knows how to unbend a mast?

I have heard you can fill the mast with wet sand and beat it with a rubber mallet, but i have never tried it, i have tried putting one end of the mast on a chair and putting a sandbag in the middle pull it back out, it worked a little. my theory is that aall masts are bent, the hard part is determining how much you are willing to let your mast be bent before you start to worry about it.

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The pessimist complains about the wind, the optimist expects it to change, the realist adjusts the sails.

If the side wall is not kinked, or does not have a crease (if it does the mast will break at this point, sooner or later) you can try to straigthen it in the fork of a large tree.

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hobiejohn at earthlink dot net
Fleet 297

Not all masts are bend - at least I have one that is not. But I also have one that is bend in a mild way without kinks.
IMHO Sand bags, rubber mallets and human strength will not straighten out a bend hobie mast. They are pretty strong - and fairly flexible.
I would try the following method... Find the beginning, the end, and the center of your bend. You will have to find a location that allows you to support the beginning and end point of the bend while at the same time having the opportunity to place a car jack (hydraulic) in the center of the bend. I would consider a garage door opening - place the mast so that the center of the bend will be under the lintel (horizontal part of the garage door opening). This is where you would brace the car jack. Since the mast is very flexible for its size, you will have to over bend in the other direction. The mast will to some amount spring back. You will have to make several attempts and check for progress in-between. Be careful the mast acts like a big spring - the forces needed to cause permanent deformation will be high. If the jack slips you could get injured.
Good luck

Patrick

Check out this site. Steve has had a similar problem and it looks like they had a good system. He has a bunch of other interesting modifications for his Getaway. Scroll down to the end to see the Bent Mast.
Good Luck

http://steve.skybeach.org/sailing_files/sailing2.htm