New update, with not so good news this time.

A week ago, the creaking got so nervwreckingly annoying again. I could even see the wooden wedges move slightly when under deck. I opened everything up, hammered the wedges really strongly downwards again, and put the wooden slats and hoseclamps back in place. Reminder, this is how it looks like:

It worked quietly for about two days. Then, yesterday, running in F5-6 in following, choppy 1 m waves, it all went creaking again... I have to admit, it was the fastest day of our last months, 46 miles at 5.6 kn average speed (averaged including harbour manoeuvres and berthing). We've really been pushing it yesterday. Fun day! But still, such a day shouldn't loosen the mast wedges at all.

As we have only about one month left for our little cruise, we will get away with hammering them down again and again. But for winter, I imagine fitting something else. Maybe line the partners and mast with plastic kitchen foil, as a separator, and pour in some gum/ vulcanizing stuff, Pantera, whatsoever. If cut vertically in more than one part, this might work.

After about 4 weeks of almost daily coastal sailing, my solution failed completely. It was creaking and wandering again, all over the place. The hose clamps finally fell off. It was to be expected, I guess, if you try to clamp something conical... 

In the meantime we have been to Stockholm and were able to buy some straight wood slats. I rebuilt the fastening now to your suggestion, Arne. It is on for about a week now, so far so good. Thanks for the advice!

Paul, I initially had a similar problem with Arion's wedges.  In my case, the partners had not been made with a taper.  I finally bevelled the sides of my wedges so they were a tighter fit against each other, like barrel staves, then put a hose-clamp around them.  I fitted small round-head screws to each wedge, one just above and another just below the hose-clamp, so that no individual wedge could move up or down.  I used Western Red Cedar wedges, which are very soft and crush a little, which further helped with a tight fitting.

Before I did that, the noise was disconcerting, and I had to continually reassure myself that the mast was not going anywhere, since it had a bolt through the mast step.

Or, you could put a seizing around the mast above the wedges, which would stop them moving up and would be hidden by the mast coat.

Hi,

My recently finished junk rig for Ilvy performs really well. However, despite the amazingly noiseless tacks, a new source of noise appeared: the mast wedges. They also keep wandering up and down quite a lot, depending on the course sailed. Be assured, I really hammered them in. Twice, in four weeks. On the fotos one can see the deviation from their original, freshly hammered position by the pencil line after one full day out at 15 kn.

Though I am not afraid of them going all the way up, the creaking increases significantly as they work loose... 

The situation:

• the partners have a slight angle built in, to which the wedges align exactly.
• Wedges are made of pine. 
• The mast has to be unstepped every winter, so permanent solutions like casting synthetics won't work. 
• We are underway right now, solutions requiring a workshop will be difficult...

If anyone could share some proven method to fix this, it would be much appreciated.

My ideas so far would be (really only brainstorming):

• Waxing the mast and partners at the wedges
• Securing the wedges with a large diameter hose clamp
• Lashing the wedges with chord, i.e. turks head
• Screw in every wedge, just below the partners (ugly...)

 Any thoughts on this would be helpful. I searched the huge amount of information, but missed it probably...

Cheers,

Paul