The age-old wetsuit trick.
From my experience with two or three different sailboat manufacturers, the easiest and most reliable mast boot solution for the through-deck mast was the wetsuit leg. Literally find, steal, 'borrow' [wink] an old wetsuit, cut a length of the leg about 12 inches high wherever the diameter suits [sorry!] that of your mast, and slide it up from the bottom of the spar. Then use one plastic mainsail slide for filling the sail track. Install with liberal use of 5200 and fit large hose-clamps around it (yes of course you will use more than one, chained together) top and bottom. You will find it fits beautifully around the standard alumninium through-deck mast collar. Providing you can get a piece of wetsuit material, this is the cheapest reliable method I know of. Also-- depending in the wet suit-- it looks very sleek. Some people dress it up with coloured vinyl tape. The trick is to have the sail slide cemented in the right place and the hose clamps fitted properly (i.e., double-clamped, not cutting into the rubber). Be sure to make up a spare just in case (can be slit to be clamped around the mast in situ for emergencies). JC
