I'm a newbie at sailing and I've got an older day sailor, 16.5 feet long, its very similar to a Newport 16. It doesn't have any identification markers on it so I don't know who manufactured the boat. The previous owner told me it was over powered and the mast should probably be replaced with something smaller. I think I can shorten the current mast instead of buying a new/use one. So I'm wondering if there is general rule(s) of thumb(s) for mast lengths.
Mast size?
- Thread starter sam03v
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It really depends on the specific boat. There's no basic rule of thumb, since a gaff rigged boat will often have a much shorter mast than the same basic boat that is sloop rigged. Do yo have photos of the boat or its sails? If so, posting them might be a good idea, since that might give someone a chance to recognize it and identify it. Once you know what the boat is, you can figure out what the normal rig on it is and whether yours is shorter, longer or the same as it... then you at least have a benchmark to compare it to.
If you have the spars then just get smaller sails. Just because you CAN hoist a 25 foot tall sail doesn't mean you have to. All boats can be over powered by the sails in a strong enough wind that is why they invented reef points . reef points make the sails smaller when the wind blow hard and allows you to spread a large sail in light winds.
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