The original (international spars) mast and boom are very strong and good on the SD23., both are in GWO

The mast is inspected 2010, and no issues i can see, it has the following fitted at the moment: It is 8.34M high exactly, plus the anchor light and vhf antenna above.

working anchor light, halyards fitted, all outside mast, which is why its lasted so long!

fitted digital wind instrument by stowe, which is aft mounted to avoid spinakker damage

2 spare wind instrument tops

VHF antenna

2 top shrouds, 4 spreader shrouds, 1 backstay with bottlescrewed Y stay for transom.

for transportation, as its about 8 metres, i am putting it on a roofrack with flags and lights and driving slowly when its quiet, but it could be transported on a flatbed lorry anywhere uk next day

Condition is much as good as last overhaul 2002, and in 2004 she crossed the english channel in force 6, and been in races force 8 gusting 9 over-canvassed without so much as a creak.

As part of my overhaul, i found out how to tune the mast was simply to lie on your back looking up the aft side of the mast, and ensure it went up straight with about 6 inches of aft ben at top relative to spreaders.Once you know this, its easy to do yourself.

The boom is about 8 feet long and i overhauled it in 2008, polishing the aluminium, and renovating the hardwood furling baton strips, servicing the roller worm screw mechanism (which has original and spare cranks - very rare). I also improved and uprated the mainsheet swivel to a longer ss plate and hub, so that the uphaul and sheets would not foul the boom during reefing. I also added a mini block to the end to assist clew outhaul and so enable essential easy tension of sail foot, thus erradicating creases id been seeing before.

The boom has a keyhole slot for the downhaul block, and a corresponding hook in the downhaul block, so it can be quickly released for roller reefing.

The advantage of roller over slab reefing is only obvious when underway, i.e. its tidy and the sail has better flatter shape in strong winds, which after all is when you are going to reef anyway!

The only sensible way to deliver mast, is by borrowing a long dinghy trailer, which already has a mast support near the ball hitch, and then make a suitable yoke in the rear, OR get delivered on a flat-bed lorry -

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