Helpful offer, Annie, thanks. Will send link  later from laptop rather than from iPad. 

Mark Thomasson wrote:I have just had a thought-

  

The important factor is not sail area, but the righting moment from the hull and ballast. Sail area could be considered almost irrelevant as the sail pressure varies with wind force.

 

As the righting moment is not something readily known, the displacement / beam / keel depth type will give a very good picture.

That said, some of the more savvy members have got their head around hull righting moments and mast breaking stress, so perhaps these too could be added.

The problem is trying to keep the tables reasonably small, if there is too much information it becomes more difficult to scan through.  Adjusting how it is set out helps.

Mark, have you had a look at the latest version? If you can think of any other layout changes, feel free to make them. As you know but new members might not, this is a collaborative project and the value of the database is only as good as the quality and amount of data on individual masts in it. If members would like to add their boat's data, please let me know.

As promised above, here's the link to the latest (June 6th) version of the Mast Database by Mark Thomasson and Daniel Collins. It's a Google Drive/Docs spreadsheet file. Any Googler should be able to access it, but to edit/extend it you'll need 'permission', so please drop me a line or say so here. Daniel has taken onboard most suggestions and says:

"1.  I added separate columns for Main Sail Area, Foremast Sail Area, and Mizzen Sail Area.  Each of these should be just a number (in square metres, as noted at the heading).  Then I added a column "Total Sail Area" which is automatically summed from those.  People can sort by any of those now, search or exclude by range, and this will help filter and compare.  For convenience, I moved everybody's numbers from the original column into the proper column here as best as I could determine.  I made explicit notes in the owner's comments field where I needed to slightly deviate (only for the two side-by-side cats).
2.  I added a column for Main and Foremast Topmast Info.  I did not automatically populate these.
3.  I froze the header row so as you scroll the legend stays visible.
4.  Added a column for Mainmast (and Foremast) Wall Thickness (if appropriate).  I only populated my and Annie's columns as I saw only data for ours in the comments.
I hope these changes help."

Many thanks for your work Daniel. Members who formerly had access will need to ask for it again.

David, Lynda - perhaps we can include this in Magazine 63?

Here is the mast database in Google Docs format (viewable to anyone):

I was just looking at my own profile entry and I see that it's really lacking in the information people might need for working out about the dimensions of my topmast.  It also doesn't ask for the wall thickness of the alloy.  I put this at the bottom which is for comments about the mast in service.  Not really the appropriate place.  I think a bit of redesigning would be a good idea to ensure that the wall thickness gets mentioned and to allow of a description of the topmast.  To get the correct answers, we need to ask the correct questions.