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Old 08-01-2007
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Jeff_H Jeff_H is offline
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I would say that a wooden mast would be a deal breaker for most folks. Most fiberglass boats that have wooden spars were either built in the 1960's or come from an Asian builder; one of the main draw of either is the fact that they typically are cheap to buy for their length. In both cases the typical glues used in these wooden spars are nearing the end of their useful lifespan. Even well maintained wooden spars have a fixed lifespan and 30-40 years is close to that lifespan.

Depending on the size, make and model, a fully rigged and in the boat set of high quality, professionally built wooden spars can easily cost as much as one of these boats might be worth if it were in perfect shape, and a set of fully rigged and in the boat professionally built aluminum spars can easily cost between a 1/3 and 3/4 of the value of one of these boats in perfect shape. While this may be typical case, obviously there will be cases of high value boats where this is not true.

You might argue that you can cut corners and do the work yourself and perhaps use non-yacht materials to save cost, but those expedients will ultimately decrease the vale of the boat. Doing it yourself with yachting grade materials may save a little paid labor but even a retiree's time has some value.

Other than aesthetics, I can think of no advantage at all to having wooden spars, so the ultimate replacement is likely to be aluminum. There are some unique costs associated with the switch to aluminum spars from wood such as the bronze hardware used on wooden spars often need custom mounting hardware on the new mast to work on an aluminum spar.

So it comes down to how cheap is the boat in question, what do similar boats with aluminum spars sell for, and what would this particular boat be worth when you are done replacing the spars and doing whatever other repairs are needed. If you can realistically make the case that you can buy the boat cheaply enough to replace the rig and still come out ahead, or you love this specific boat so much that you don't mind spending more than it is worth, proceed. Otherwise there are a lot of boats in the sea. Keep looking....

Respectfully,
Jeff
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