Used Masts

scargo · Joined: 19 May 2007 Posts: 394

I learned, from bitter experience and a long swim in cold water, that masts can be damaged by excessive in-haul tension. And there's no way to know if a used mast has suffered such treatment. (Yes, you could probably detect severe crushing at the boom cutout, but I'm talking about more insidious damage.)

In other words, that's the one piece of kit that I'd always buy new (unless, as others have said, a breakdown would be a non-issue).

dllee · Joined: 03 Jul 2009 Posts: 5329 Location: East Bay

As with anything procured, you have to test it out in controlled conditions FIRST and foremost, and after satisfying your durability criteria, you can then sail off to North Farralone Islands without undue worry.
This goes for new as well as used.
We all know, if a mast is going to break for no reason, it's gonna break within the first 5 usages. After that, it's pretty good, and only catastrophic accident's will break it.
I have well over 20 used masts, and while I"ve broken a few, the percentage is no better, or worse, than buying a new mast and putting it into service.
Just test it out in safe conditions before doing something epic.

VinceSF · Joined: 05 Apr 2005 Posts: 249 Location: Maui, HI

try to find out the weight of the previous owner. I'm light and I've never broken a mast in over 20years of windsurfing.
I still have a 12years old mast I regularly use.

konajoe · Joined: 28 Feb 2010 Posts: 517

That's a tough question, isn't it? Between my wife and I, in lots of years of sailing, we've broken 3 masts. I broke an old mast in the surf in shallow water. But my wife broke 2 new 100% carbon fiber masts in 1 week! It was several years ago. But when I asked, I was told that 100% carbon masts have an 'infant mortality' similar to electronics. So, at that time, I was being told that one would be better off with a 100% mast that had survived infancy.

cgoudie1 · Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2016 10:14 am Post subject:

Interesting. I've never bought a used mast, because I've always been
concerned about damage you cannot see, but what Joe, Vince and Lee are saying, all make sense, and I have pro and con experience from all those
positions. At 180 lbs I don't really consider myself a heavy weight, but
this sport does. I have snapped masts that were at the end of their life
(i.e. after maybe 10 or more years use), and I have snapped masts due to
infant mortality (never curse a mast that snaps while rigging on the beach,
that mast has done you a tremendous favor). And, my wife (of 120lbs
at the time) snapped an epoxy mast in a awkard fall, that left nothing
but the mast (in the middle of its life) damaged.

So, I'm thinking you can break anything at any time, but the highest
likelihood of a mast break is as Lee and Joe say, either at the beginning or after a long use life. With the exception of light weight women ;*) where anything could happen.

-Craig

DanWeiss · Joined: 24 Jun 2008 Posts: 2296 Location: Connecticut, USA

isobars · Joined: 12 Dec 1999 Posts: 20935

Very shortly after my last broken mast cost me a new mast, a new 7.5 sail, and a mile swim, I threw money at the problem to make sure the key word is LAST. Unless I start looping in knee-deep surf or smack one against a rock, I will never break a Nolimitz mast. I've paid everything from $35 used to ~$400 new for them.

windward1 · Joined: 18 Jun 2000 Posts: 1400

I like NoLimitz masts and have several of them. But I had a new No Limitz hi carbon mast break on me while I was just sailing along. I was caught totally by surprise. And it took the long swim in for me to come to believe it actually happened.

joethewindsufa · Joined: 10 Oct 2010 Posts: 1190 Location: Montréal

am sure you have all seen this one of Antoine Albeau breaking a mast in the race:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybu7vUrslc4

i call the mast the spine of the sail setup
and we all know about the different back problems
good thing they don't snap ...

how many people have snapped RDM ??
and how many use RDM in 460 + cm length mast ??

isobars · Joined: 12 Dec 1999 Posts: 20935

I buy Nolimitz's for the construction, not the carbon content or the diameter. No other mast that I know of has ever stuck its tip up its base* successfully. I doubt Albeau was racing with a Nolimitz wave mast, let alone a Sumo RDM.

* Yeah, I know some people deny that. They're wrong. Yes, it finally exploded, but it took a while and that ain't gonna happen to me anyway. It may go up MY butt, but not its own.