Hi All... My mast DID come down once... I never quite figured out exactly how, but as close as I can tell, it's because I used a lube on the masthead threads. The boat was in a freshwater lake, at my wife's uncle's house, had been there for a season. We used to get ski boats coming through every Sat and Sun, setting up a wicked short chop that would whip the mast back and forth for a few moments. It was a lousy place t keep a boat in retrospect, but it was in the water and allowed me to spend more time sailing... I usually sail alone and launching & trailering is too big a job for one person to do every time you sail. I had replaced the masthead and used all new stainless bolts. I didn't want them to sieze in the aluminum, so I lubed the threads with a little Desitin. When I got to the boat, the masthead was off... NONE of the bolts were there... and the turnbuckle body in the forestay was gone. I believe all three of the masthead bolts had worked their way out, but tension held the cap in place. What brought the mast down was the turnbuckle working its way off... I had neglected to wire it. Fortunately, this was with my previous boat. No real damage other than a bent mast step bracket and a few scratches. When I reassembled everything, I used Loctite. I'm not sure if that was the right thing to do, but I knew I had gotten it wrong before & didn't want a repeat! Best Brian Gilbert Author, Fix It And Sail, The Complete Trailer Sailer On Mar 1, 2009, at 12:26 PM, montgomery_boats-request@mailman.xmission.com wrote:

You might see if this arrangement will work for you: http://www.dca.uk.com/articles/reefing.htm

Permatex COPPER based anti sieze is supposed to be the one to use for aluminum/stainless.

I used this on some stainless screws at the masthead and the screws never seem tight.? I am always afraid they will come out on their own.

I recently removed a lot of hardware from my old mast and boom.? The really old stainless screws were essentially welded to aluminum after some 25 years.? The ones I put in 10 years ago were starting to corrode but were still removable.