Mast coatings...

[Chris Miller]

Getting ready to have our rig replaced and we've been getting quotes for new mast paint- it's not cheap. I was wondering about just having it stripped (no new boats have paint on their aluminum masts anymore), not much cheaper now- but we'll never have to do it again. Anything I need to worry about with this idea?
Also is it possible to have it soda blasted instead of hand stripped? People are talking about 40-50 hrs to strip and paint.
Thanks
Chris

 

[Frank Langer]

Chris, I can appreciate the dilemma from a budgetary point of view, but the previous owner on our boat painted the mast and boom a lovely navy blue (to go with the white boat/blue trim, bootstripe). It looks lovely, and makes my boat easy to find in a marina. Yours might look equally good!
Frank

 

[roger hinds]

Painting the mast

Chris,
Nine years ago we painted our mast. We had just bought the boat, and the mast was laying on the hard. We were intimidated by the thought of pulling all the fittings ect., not to mention the screwing up the new piant job. We had planned to have the mast spray painted by professionals, but for some reason they were tied up with other project at the time. We ended up doing it ourselves with no experience at all, and it turned out terrific! We just light sanded the good paint, and took down the bad stuff to the bare metal, primering with aluminum primer. To keep it simple we used a one part polyurethane, using the roll and tip method (small 1 1/4 inch foam roller). I don't remember how long the whole project took but, it was alot easier than we thought it would be, and remains one of our most successful and rewarding projects.
Roger.