Several years ago we drove our M17 under a tree and twisted it like a pretzel. We put one end under a car bumper , and over a saw horse and heaved down on the other end until we got it streight enough to sail.but still had a forward bend o0n top. A month ago we were at the SAGE Marine factory and told Jerry M about our problem He told me to take it off the boat and we could streighten it. We sighted down the mat , put the center of the bendon a saw horse3 and 2 people on each end and heaved until it was streight .. You will have to sight and bend, move the bent area over the saw horse and heave as many times as necessary. What do you have to loose? Sorry for the delay in replying we are now on Larry Yakes San Juan cruise and have not had i-net for several days Eldor M17 Motu iti ---- Original Message ---- From: robbin roddewig <robbin.roddewig@verizon.net> To: For and about Montgomery Sailboats <montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Sat, Jun 18, 2011 1:46 pm Subject: Re: M_Boats: bent mast due to major screw up. Hi Martha, tuff happens but in the overall scheme of things this sounds fairly ecoverable. Hopefully for not too much money and effort. I cannot laim to have any structural engineering background but I would have to magine it would be good to replace the tube of the mast and not try to traighten the mast. Dwyer mast http://www.dwyermast.com/ has lots of ube cross sections. You should be able to move all the components to he new tube. If it is setup like my M-23 mast the tangs for the hrouds are bolted on and the mast head fitting can be moved along with ny base. I don't remember is the M-15 mast has speaders but these ould be moved by drilling out the rivets and re-riveviting. If you eed to rivet stainless steel rivets order a rivet tool from Jamestown istributors, I have split and ruined what is available at Home Depot nd Tractor Supply, they are not made for stainless rivets. ake 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 o notice an overhanging tree branch and backed the boat's mast right into a igh branch, just catching the tip of the mast and bending it forward in a evere curve from the halfway point upwards. Screams from the crowd ensued and lthough just a few feet had been traveled the Oak Tree did not give way and the ast now has a forward lean which seems to originate at about the half way oint curving possibly 3 or 4 degrees.. I am crushed to have allowed such a stupid error. Can damage to the mast like his 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! _______________________________________________ ttp://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats When posting, remember that there is no privacy on the Internet!