I sailed my big 10.5 sail yesterday to take advantage of the heat and light winds. A good day of sailing, but when I went to de-rig, my mast base was stuck solid in the mast (see pic). Both the mast and base are carbon, and I prefer not to break anything. I had someone hold the mast while I attempted to pull the base out...no luck there. Any suggestions on how to remove the base without causing any damage? Thanks.

Pretty easy actually. Clamp the mast at least a foot past where the top of the base is, stick a long screw driver through the pin holes on the base, rotate the base and twist it out. Hard part is clamping the mast effectively w/o cracking it: curved wooden shoes in a machinist vice, double loop of webbing and crank it like a tourniquet with a long thick wooden dowel, 4-5 people + elbow grease. couple ways to do it. Worth it to shoot some silicone (or other greaseless) lubricant in there. PB Blaster is good stuff.

Pouring hot water over the female part of the mast did the job for me once, when both parts got stuck.

Hard to see how that happened. Doesn't that type of collar have a built-in shim to match the mast diameter, but is only 1 inch or so inside the mast? Unlike a 2-piece mast with very long contact area, seems really fluky for that to have occurred with such a small contact area. Sand? It would be tough to keep sand out of there.

Do NOT put the mast in a vise! Attach a boom to the mast. Reduce the diameter of the grip of a second boom and attach it to the mast extension (or put the mast extension in a vise, but do not tighten). Use the booms for leverage to twist the two pieces apart. You got sand in the bottom of the mast before you put the mast extension in...it is a fairly common problem. But never put loads on carbon fiber (especially point loads like screw drivers) that it is not designed for - speaking as the previous Director of Materials Technology at Fiberspar.

I'm glad you guys weighed in. I'll just keep my ideas to myself....




You should see plan B. It involves black powder.

Reid has the best ideas.

Thanks for all the suggestions. Reid, I liked your idea best but my buddies with the Monster Trucks weren't available, so I think I'll start with the easiest first. I know carbon expands with heat, so I'll try Ady's suggestion and see how that turns out. Either way, I'll report back and let you all know how it went and what worked. Thanks again.

Paul- low tech is quickest and easiest. Take a screwdriver and place in the pin holes on the base (you will hold the screwdriver to twist from this end) , then get 2-3 people to help twist on the mast a few feet above the base. Twist back and forth , while pulling. Holding the mast is trickiest part because you don't have a great grip, so several people are needed, gloves can help too with traction (slightly wet them)

If the screwdriver is long enough, then you can also wedge that screwdriver somewhere (i've i use my trailer hitch or sometimes a fence pole works) so you only need human power on one end of the twisting.

Boom clamping is not strong enough, and vise clamp is NEVER good, and will easily damage gear.

How to get 2 -3 people to help? Just say, " i bet your not strong enough to do this........".

Best time to do this , is while derigging at the beach so you can quickly recruit bystanders

Hey Alan, how's Florida treating you? When are you moving back again? I'm sure you must be missing a good hot dog or italian beef.

i would shoot water from a garden hose up the bottom of the extension and try to dislodge any sand that is causing it to stick. I believe that extension has holes in it. You can also put a hose down the top of the mast and try to build up some water pressure to force sand out the other way.

A trick I've used for separating glued carbon and alloy tubes that need a lot of force is to use 2 loops and 2 levers.

You need 2 long (think 75cm) loops, these are Dyneema but you can just tie the ends of 2 lines together, which you'll prussik onto the tubes, wrapping in oppsite directions. A prussik is just hitching the line through itself multiple times; think of doing a luggage-tag attachment multiple times, as many as you can fit.

Then you put a lever through the sticking-out part of each loop, and twist in opposite directions.

I've used this one very large carbon work without incident; it's nice because it distributes the load over a larger area so doesn't crack the laminate. You can also use prussik loops to hitch onto the tube to pull them apart if you have a solid point to pull on.