I am a spreadsheet person. I make lots of sheets with budgets, punch lists, statistical analysis and whatever else I might be working on. Its comforting. A spreadsheet gives me hard numbers that I can use to help me with decisions. I had spreadsheets for analyzing different boats before I bought Ventolines (the second, well and the first).
That 
spreadsheet had lookups to various items costs and nominal labor to fix/install. It helped me a lot in understanding what each boat was worth, as she lay; not as I imagine her to be. After all, value is subjective. Something is simply worth what someone is willing to pay monetarily and maybe psychically. Value is NOT what labor went into it or the cost of the parts or anything else that is objective. And since one typically buys a boat with their heart and not with their head I needed a way to quantify costs of each choice and helping me decide my subjective value. Spreadsheets do that for me.
The new Ventolines checked a lot of boxes. It was missing somethings and it had issues around through hulls and wiring. All of which were priced into my offer. So far so good, right? Its always the things you don’t clearly see that get you. In my case, its a mast that needs repair.
I wanted the mast rewired and a new radar installed (which came with the boat). When pulling the mast, the corrosion at the base turned into a large problem when a chunk of the bottom (about an inch or so) crumbled. The corrosion inside the mast was worse than I had expected. And my spreadsheet did not help me price in a new mast.
I now have 3 options. Save the current spar, with its in mast furling that I have kind of decided I like. Buy a new mast somewhere between $10K and $15K. I could turn this Pearson into a power boat. Ok, that’s not really an option.
I have consulted with two different rigging companies. One says a new mast is the only way to go. Their logic goes something like this:
- You will have new chain plates
- You will have new shrouds and turnbuckles,
- You are getting an new furler
- The only thing left is the mast and at that point you should just buy a new one.
Seems self serving. I don’t know if a spar has a lifetime. I am sure it does; but what is the duty cycle? 30 years, 50, 100 years. If the mast is in compression, in column, it should not move much. This should extend an aluminum extrusion indefinitely.
I am leaning towards just fixing the mast. It saves about $12,000 (USD) over getting a new mast, which is really the cost of the spar; since the labor to fix the existing one or install a new one seems to be a wash. It saves a bit more this year as well. Since I get to keep my existing sails, despite their poor condition it saves me some money. I also don’t need to purchase a sail cover or stack pack.
The benefit of a new mast, though is fairly strong. The new mast would be one piece instead of 2. The thousands of holes in it for the add on furling main would “disappear” the things added and removed with specious holes would go away. I would, possibly get better sailing performance with a new full batten main.
But the money… I want to go cruising sooner than later…