Hi Martha, stuff happens but in the overall scheme of things this sounds fairly recoverable. Hopefully for not too much money and effort. I cannot claim to have any structural engineering background but I would have to imagine it would be good to replace the tube of the mast and not try to straighten the mast. Dwyer mast http://www.dwyermast.com/ has lots of tube cross sections. You should be able to move all the components to the new tube. If it is setup like my M-23 mast the tangs for the shrouds are bolted on and the mast head fitting can be moved along with any base. I don't remember is the M-15 mast has speaders but these could be moved by drilling out the rivets and re-riveviting. If you need to rivet stainless steel rivets order a rivet tool from Jamestown Distributors, I have split and ruined what is available at Home Depot and Tractor Supply, they are not made for stainless rivets. Make sure the the mast tabernacle area was not damaged as well. Best of luck and let us know what you do and how it goes. Robbin On 6/18/2011 1:24 PM, marthaekwurtzel@aol.com wrote:
Yesterday while waiting to load my M-15 at a crowded boat launch, I failed to notice an overhanging tree branch and backed the boat's mast right into a high branch, just catching the tip of the mast and bending it forward in a severe curve from the halfway point upwards. Screams from the crowd ensued and although just a few feet had been traveled the Oak Tree did not give way and the mast now has a forward lean which seems to originate at about the half way point curving possibly 3 or 4 degrees..
I am crushed to have allowed such a stupid error. Can damage to the mast like this be corrected?
Sign me,
long- time- sailor- who-should- have- know- better.
Martha
2001 M-15 Knot Head. Bone-head)
_______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats
When posting, remember that there is no privacy on the Internet!