Beau, the picture is misleading in that the mast had to be persuaded much farther in the opposite direction. The bends I got out were not nearly as bad as the dogleg you see in the pic when it was under pressure. You want to let the mast stay under pressure for awhile to relax the tension, no banging or heat! And just keep sneaking up on it until your happy.
Now, you can go one better than me if you can make a caul (a 2x4 or 4x4 section roughed out to the profile of the mast) to put against the mast where it is touching the jig. This would act like a tube bender and not let the mast flatten out at that spot. A couple of spots on mine did flatten slightly, and I drilled a 1/4" hole on the opposite side to allow a small rounded bar to insert to tap out the flat spot and then fill the hole with thickened epoxy.
The entire mast was then faired out, and prepped for aluminum primer and two coats of two part urethane to make it look presentable. Someone looking at it now would not know how bad it was.
I know there are guys that say they would trust the mast after this, but my bends were not hard kinks, but were too bad to leave and not in the right location to be straightened by the rigging. I'm not a metalurgist, but I dont think the mast strength has been compromised by my action.
My mast had been laying around on the ground and trailer for several years, looked like the kids had been jumping on it or run over by the riding mower of the previous owner. I looked at that bent mast for the entire boat re-build thinking about how I could striaghten it out. There were bends fore and aft where the mast hit the hatch (after the forestay gave way on the previous owner, which was the last day she sailed with that family). Two of the bends were side to side, which were the easiest to get out of course.
Jim
