SabresfortheCup wrote:
So you just coated the mast rotator sleeve with 5200 sealant? I'm thinking of doing the same with mine, probably put it on the end of a zip-tie and use that to coat the inside of the sleeve.
Yeah, I put some 5200 on the outside of the sleeve hoping to seal any leaking between the foam and the spacer and to hold it in place... but that's not what I think causes the majority of the leakage. The air comes out right alongside the 1/4" through-bolt, and I used an O-ring on either side which sits outside the sleeve and in the depression formed by the end of the sleeve, the outside of the through-bolt, and the inside of the mast wall (and the riveted reinforcement plates). That O-ring is then sandwiched in by a nylon fender washer on each side, and the whole shebang is compressed together by the through-bolt, squeezing together the ends of the rotator and diamond wires.
I suspect it would have been waterproof just like that, but I put a small bead of 5200 around each O-ring nonetheless, so the mast is goo-ed to the fender washers with the O-ring goo-ed in the gap between the spacer tube, the nylon washer, the inner diameter of the mast and reinforcement plate, and the outer diameter of the through-bolt. The 5200 has set up nicely, and none of that moves relative to anything else, but the mast rotator still has sufficient swing up/down within the lower terminal ends of the diamond wires.
SabresfortheCup wrote:
Installing a spinnaker? Sounds like a blast!
Haven't tried it yet, will save it for light wind entertainment. Right now, I agree -- getting off the trailer and onto the water is the priority and I'm choosing better wind days! It has been a good season thus far in Northern California... summer will find me bobbing around with limited wind on local lakes (playing with a spinny, perhaps?) or driving further to get to good wind in the mountains or near Rio Vista.
Randii