when I stopped at Torresen Marine a few months back, I picked up new end caps for my mast – the plain cap for the base of the mast, and the mast cap with the integrated fairlead for the top of the mast. (my current top of mast has a domed cap, but a small through-bolt with a small block for the halyard — see picture below. I currently don’t have a base cap at the bottom – about 6 or 8 inches up the inside of the mast I can see some wood blocking – I assume the original cork?).
I opened up the packaging for the new mast base cap to test fit it – BUT the base cap outside diameter is too large. my boat is pre-71, not sure if the mast is original, but it seems to be. I haven’t checked the mast top cap yet, but I would assume I’ll run into the same problem there. I kind of doubt that the mast inside diameter been changed, and it honestly appears as if the base is almost necked down slightly – maybe from wear and tear?
I think my path forward will have to be to try to carefully trim down the plastic or heavily sand down the plastic base cap to get it to fit. I emailed my contact at Torresen Marine, and he recommended sanding the plastic, and NOT trying to sand the aluminum mast (after all… in the words of Frank Costanza, aluminum has a “very high strength-to-weight ratio”).
Hey, thanks for the comment, I’m new to this blogging thing but it has been fun so far. Great to meet a fellow sailor. Do you travel with the boats much??? Good looking site.
Chris, I’m about 45 minutes in several directions for the closest lakes, so I always have to trailer them at least that far.
On vacation this summer (and a few times previously), I’ve trailered them about 4 hours up to the northern part of Michigan (lower peninsula still) to sail on Lake Michigan.