Re: Mast painting

"Roger Long" <strider@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message 
news:482dc783$0$5092$4c368faf@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> I've been dithering about redoing the mast this spring.  It's a matter
of 
> possibly missing another couple weeks of sailing vs having everything 
> major on the boat done so I can keep open the option of taking her south

> next winter.  I couldn't stand the uncertainty of not knowing what I was

> going to decide any more so I went down this morning and pulled the
wiring 
> out and removed most of the fittings.
>
> Glad I did.  The PO's wire nut and masking tape connections were showing

> bare copper in one spot.  Lots of corrosion around fittings in the lower

> section after just 3 years in salt water.  Bedding and sealing all the 
> S.S. screws and fittings a good thing to be doing this year.
>
> Any painting experts here?
>
> The mast is a 1980 Kenyon with a thin coat of gray paint that looks like

> it might have been epoxy considering how well it's held up.  Lots of
bare 
> spots up at the top where the previously wire jib halyard scraped
grooves 
> right into the aluminum.
>
> I talked to the old guy at the Benjamin Moore paint store who seems to 
> know a lot about paint.  He is the one who put me onto the "dumpster" 
> paint for the topside stripe which came out great.
>
> http://home.maine.rr.com/rlma/08Paint.htm
>
> He says he says paint in Maine is a problem because the state sort of 
> randomly made much of it illegal in the state.  The only paint approved
by 
> the American Hospital Association for use in populated hospital wards is

> now illegal but his two most carcinogenic paints are still on the
shelves. 
> Go figure.  I don't know whether this makes enough difference to justify

> going to Massachusetts to buy paint.
>
> The local store has a "direct to metal" acrylic enamel that he suggests 
> applying with an airbrush type sprayer I can rent from them.  They can
mix 
> an exact color match so chips and wear spots won't show in most spots. 
No 
> way I'm going to try taking the old paint off.  What is on there is
really 
> tight and hard.
>
> Anybody got a better idea?


Yes, proper, Bristol, blue water yachts have anodized aluminum masts if
the 
owner is too cheap to go the superior in every way carbon fiber route. For

the second-rate aluminum mast, nothing is as durable as anodizing. Nothing

is as light. Nothing is as maintenance free. Paint - any paint is an 
inferior system.

Wilbur Hubbard