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PostPosted: Sun Sep 04, 2016 4:25 pm 
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Location: Sayville, NY
While sailing today, winds about 7-10, with slightly higher gusts, 12-15, mast cracked while sail fully open. Mast was fully seated & locked down. It's a 2011 sail & mast on a 2014 replacement AI hull. I'm an occasional user in AI sailing mode, it's mostly used in kayak mode for fishing, I may have sailed it a few dozen times since purchasing new 2011.

Mast is carbon fiber, broken in 2 about 2.5' from bottom. I was thinking of epoxying in an aluminum sleeve to make repair. I'm wondering if anyone has successfully repaired a broken mast & could offer advice. As this is a 2 piece mast, does Hobie sell just the lower half & if so, is the furling drum, etc included with the replacement part?

Thanks in advance for all suggestions & help.

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PostPosted: Sun Sep 04, 2016 7:57 pm 
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Location: Sarasota,Key West FL
Those masts are pretty expensive, if it was my mast and I broke it you can bet your bottom dollar I would be looking for a way to fix it. Fortunately yours broke in a thicker area down near the bottom where there is not a lot of flexing going on. If it was higher up I would say forget it, just get a new one.
If I was attempting the repair I would saw off the broken material, but keep track of how much you removed, because you want the repaired mast to be at least the same height or slightly taller.
I would then measure the ID and see what the largest diameter tubing you can fit in there, I would guess about 8 inches into each piece. I would then order some godd quality tubing (360-T6 minimum). About 18-20 inches long 1/8" wall thickness. I think you will need 1/16" clearance gap around the tube for your adhesive. If it was me I would just pack GE silicone around the aluminum, but that might be difficult because ge silicone is air dry. If you can find a flexible 2 part (maybe urethane expanding foam) or something that is almost as flexible as the silicone (can be slightly more rigid). Yea you can probably use epoxy, but make sure it's west epoxy for marine use, (if your using epoxy you don't need as much clearance on the outside.
Ideally if your using epoxy you can make a little dam at the end of the tubing so you can pour the epoxy.
You will now likely have a 2" gap between the two repaired halves, I would just fill that gap with epoxy. When sanding be careful not to scratch the carbon mast (can cause failure).
That's what I would do. Hopfully the alum will be strong enough.
FE


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PostPosted: Mon Sep 05, 2016 6:58 am 
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Location: Sayville, NY
Thanks for your help.
I'm going to try making a sleeve from 1.25 pvc with a fiberglass reinforced insert epoxied inside the carbon fiber mast, extend it to the mast base & about 10" above crack & use FiberFix (https://www.fiberfix.com/pages/faqs) to wrap around where mast cracked.

Was hoping Hobie sold just the bottom half of the mast.

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PostPosted: Mon Sep 05, 2016 2:45 pm 
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Location: Northern Ireland
Many years ago i broke a one piece windsurfing mast near the bottom end.
I successfully repaired it using a mahogany insert. I turned the wood down in a lathe to the correct ID and sealed with adhesive but cant remember what type. It never budged and worked fine. It never swelled up to the best of my knowledge as it was well sealed.

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

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PostPosted: Tue Sep 06, 2016 3:45 pm 
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Location: San Antonio, TX
bjb wrote:
Thanks for your help.
I'm going to try making a sleeve from 1.25 pvc with a fiberglass reinforced insert epoxied inside the carbon fiber mast, extend it to the mast base & about 10" above crack & use FiberFix (https://www.fiberfix.com/pages/faqs) to wrap around where mast cracked.

Was hoping Hobie sold just the bottom half of the mast.


Have you tried this yet? Does the 1 1/4" PVC slide snugly into the mast? If I ever break my mast, I had thought about trying this same fix. On this years Texas 200 I even brought along some PVC and a fiberglass pultrusion, just in case.

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PostPosted: Tue Sep 06, 2016 5:35 pm 
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Location: Sayville, NY
1.25" pvc fits easily in the lower section of the mast.
I haven't done the repair yet. I'd like to talk to my dealer first & get his input. I was very surprised to see the mast fail, as the winds were not that strong. The sail was fully deployed, no excessive flex in the mast & I was only cruising at around 5 mph. The mast was securely locked in & the the mast broke 20" above the front crossbar. Here's a pic of the break;
Image

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PostPosted: Tue Sep 06, 2016 5:47 pm 
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Location: Sayville, NY
1.25" pvc pipe fits nicely into lower section of the mast.

I haven't attempted the repair yet, I want to talk with my dealer about my options & get his advice. I was very surprised that the carbon fiber mast failed, winds were not excessive (10-12, w/15ph gusts), sail was fully deployed, water flat, mast not overly flexed & fully locked into receiver. I was sailing at 5mph at the time under a steady wind. Mast broke 20" above front crossbar.

Anyone know if Hobie sells just the lower section of the mast, catalog only has part # for complete mast?

Image
Image

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PostPosted: Tue Sep 06, 2016 6:13 pm 
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Location: Forster, NSW, Australia
I would be extremely hesitant to rely on a repair of that mast. I have no experience with a broken mast, but can relate that when my orthopaedic surgeon solidly joined L4, L5 and S1 in my lower back in a spinal fusion operation, he stressed that the weakest part of my back would be the L3 - L4 junction, as all the bending forces would concentrate at that point. I am due to have another spinal fusion of that area soon... (to be fair, the original repair lasted 20 plus years, but only by being ultra careful)

Bottom line - far better to get a new bottom mast section

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2012 Tandem Island "SIC EM" with Hobie spinnaker


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PostPosted: Tue Sep 06, 2016 7:53 pm 
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Location: Central Coast NSW Australia
bjb wrote:
Anyone know if Hobie sells just the lower section of the mast, catalog only has part # for complete mast?


This quote from Matt Miller in this thread viewtopic.php?f=71&t=8339
"Likely we should not have sold a half mast.
The masts are made in one piece and then cut and spliced to make them two piece. I am pretty sure we can not get halfs from the vendor, so we will be stuck with uppers that will not sell. If I can arrange for lowers from the vendor, we can consider further "Half Mast" sales, but at this point it is not available that way."

I would be checking for a warranty claim before attempting a fix. There have been reports of masts breaking and getting fixed under warranty.


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PostPosted: Wed Sep 07, 2016 5:33 pm 
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Thanks for all the advice & links. A warranty claim has been submitted, hopefully Hobie will come through, they've always been very supportive.
Since this has happened, I've tried searching for similar failures but could find none. The only mast failures I've found were when the mast wasn't fully locked in & the breaks happened below the furling collar.

I'd be very interested in hearing if anyone else had a mast issue, the circumstances how it occurred & where on the mast the break was.

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PostPosted: Sat May 06, 2017 1:24 am 
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The mast on my 2013 Tandem Island has just broken in moderate F4 wind on a calm lake. I have sent a post to this forum which should appear soon.


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PostPosted: Sat May 06, 2017 9:44 pm 
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Location: Kailua 96734
Wow, 2 masts down in one week? You're the kind of guys I really like sailing with. :twisted:

Glad there were no accident reports to file.

Just wait till you start dropping 30' aluminum masts!

Image

Image

BTW, I would opt not to repair...

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PostPosted: Sun May 07, 2017 6:35 am 
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Location: Sarasota,Key West FL
Yea the possibility of something breaking when offshore in higher winds is a little too high for me. Either a broken mast, broken rudder, etc. This is my main reasoning for always having an emergency outboard on the boat. Tilted up sitting back there doesn't effect the boats performance at all (the motor only weighs 27 lbs which is nothing in the scheme of things). Also if the winds die, or changes to a dangerous headwind preventing you from getting back to shore it's nice to fire the motor up and get back to safety. I call it get out of dodge mode, if a sudden storm rolls in (sometimes daily in the summer) I start the motor and beeline for shore. Actually in seven yrs I have only taken my TI's out twice without an emergency backup motor mounted on the boat. Those were the first two times out on our first TI we got stuck offshore and couldn't get back in, After the first trip I ordered the motor and made the mount that evening. Went out the next day (motor had not arrived yet, but I had a nice mount (lol)). I got stuck offshore again. The next day (a saturday) I drove up to st pete and picked up the motor instead of waiting for it to ship (the guys at the factory probably thought I was a nut).
Never been out without a motor since.
FE


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PostPosted: Sun May 07, 2017 12:44 pm 
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Good picts of the damages. Chances are that Hobie will give you a break on a new mast. These events are rare, and the 2 look very different.

I'm no CF expert, but BJs looks more like a material failure, or a crack started by an impact, cutting or crushing. Chads looks like he drove the boat under a low bridge at full speed. :o

How was the mast stored and transported all these years?

Also, how's the sail doing, after this incident?

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PostPosted: Sun May 07, 2017 12:54 pm 
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CF masts are an incredible engineering feat, however any nick or damage to the surface can create a fatigue point so all carbon masts need to be handled carefully, not sayin this was your problem, I'm just talking in general.
FE


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