Hello all,

I recently got a Forestier junk and set off to sail across the Pacific to New Zealand from St Martin. Unfortunately the forward mast snapped after a week in roughly 20 knots of wind. It neatly fell over the boat, 2 ropes where cut and the mast and sail are now somewhere in the Caribbean sea.

There are pictures in the photo section of the snapped mast, the silicon seal around the other mast and a towel inside wrapped around the mast to prevent water getting inside.

Now I understand why there is so much discussion on here about mast boots, a silicon bead around the bottom does not do the job.

The previous mast was Oregon planks laminated into a solid mast with a hole down the center for wires. The mast snapped where it meets the deck, around the outer circumference the split parallel to the deck and very clean. The theory so far is that the protective layer was worn down where the mast and deck meet, the silicon bead did nothing to prevent water getting in, it probably rotted around that area and eventually broke.

 Trying to get replacement mast in Panama was not successful so the boat is back in Whangarei, NZ now for repairs.

After the mishap I am leaning towards replacing them with steel masts because hopefully they are stronger, lighter and don't sway so much when having to go up the mast.

Are there any good reasons to stay with wooden masts? From the forums the major advantages seem to be the mast bending reduces boat rolling and it doesn’t rust.