Dismasted! Broken mast tang.

So I was out in the bay and the mast tang gave way. Luckily it was an onshore breeze and I could get everything tidied up and drift gently back home without much drama and damage except to the broken tang. Ironically I gave all the standing rigging a good inspection before setting out - at least at ground level, I shall be dropping the mast more regularly from now to keep an eye on the tang that's for sure. For now I am looking for some advice on how best to proceed before I start the repair.

I have a spare tang in good condition which had been used as a boom vang on a previous 14 and have stainless rivets at hand. There is corrosion as you can see in the images, I've yet to remove the old tang so unsure how bad it is. Providing the corrosion is manageable I'm planning on cleaning it up with a wire brush then fairing the damaged section you can see with JBweld or similar. Then apply tuf gel and sealant before riveting? I see there are rivet casings available to help stop leaks but would sealant suffice?

Also I read Matt Miller say on another thread that some Hobies have a plate in the mast under the tang which the rivets go through. Does the 14 have a plate there too? My mast is an all aluminium, non comp tip.

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Hobie Wave 2004
Hobie 14 1991 Plum 40525
Hobie 16 1985 Nationals White Prism 91964
Hobie 16 1985 European Championships Palma 114072

Just the CompTip styles that tangs mount to have the plate inside fr backing strength. Your aluminum one would not.

The boom vang one is too small for the main tang.

10690000 MAST TANG H14/WV

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Matt Miller
Former - Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Warranty and Technical Support
Hobie Cat USA
(Retired 11/7/2022)

Thanks Matt, that's a great help.

The tang I took off the boom looks identical to the broken mast tang, I guess they used a spare part to make their own boomvang? It needs to be reshaped as they had bent it to form around the smaller boom but it looks solid.

After removing the old broken tang the mast looks in decent shape so going ahead with the installation. I can get some epoxy putty to fair it up but having trouble sourcing tef gel or something similar (I'm in Japan). Anyone have any suggestions?

_________________
Hobie Wave 2004
Hobie 14 1991 Plum 40525
Hobie 16 1985 Nationals White Prism 91964
Hobie 16 1985 European Championships Palma 114072

Personally, I would skip the epoxy. It’s not going to do anything except help trap salt/moisture against the mast.

One thing you could do is use Alodine conversion coating to help protect the exposed aluminum. It is similar to anodizing, but can be purchased in “touch up” pens for coating small areas. You have to be careful though because some versions contain chromates so it’s somewhat nasty to work with and probably not really worth it.

Personally, I would just slap a nice thick coating of Tefgel on the surface of the new tang and on all of the rivets. Tefgel is food grade, so it’s safe to work with and really does seem to a good job preventing corrosion.

sm

So 3 years after I replaced the mast tang (see above!) I dropped the mast today to replace the rigging and found the new tang was split in two places and can only be thankful I caught it before I went out on it like that.

Now it seems strange to me that it's not too disimilar to how the first tang broke. As I've not seen many other cases of this happening I'm wondering if maybe I'm at fault here somehow. It is parked on the beach mast up all year round which is why I make a point of replacing the rigging every 3 years.

My first thoughts are either the way I tighten up the rig when I finish the day's sailing or my sailing style is causing this failure. When I park it I use a line from the bridle wire/forestay shackle connection to a jam cleat on the front crossbar and tighten the rig up to stop the mast flopping around and stressing the rigging (and mast tang!). Could it be I'm over tightening it and this is somehow causing stress fractures in the tang? As for my sailing style, I do go out in heavy weather quite often in the winter and I am not a lightweight, I like to crank everything down hard and push the limits so maybe that is a contributing factor.

I've already put in an order for a new tang and luckily I do have a spare mast which I put up today so I won't be out of action for long but if anyone has any thoughts on what is going on here I'd greatly appreciate your input.



KIMG1228

KIMG1229

KIMG1230

_________________
Hobie Wave 2004
Hobie 14 1991 Plum 40525
Hobie 16 1985 Nationals White Prism 91964
Hobie 16 1985 European Championships Palma 114072