Jonathon Bryant wrote:

Sourced an excellent aluminum light-post for a mast and now gathering the materials to start working on the rest of the rig. My priority is to get out on the water but I want to do it right. Is corrosion a significant problem with bare aluminum in a salt water environment or is the painting or anodizing purely aesthetic? Thanks.

The bare aluminium should be just fine in a salt water environment from a corrosion perspective, but there is another good reasons for coating the aluminum. Uncoated aluminium can sometimes tend to create black marks on items which rub against it, and I am thinking here of the sail. I suspect that anodising would be the best way to go if you do want to coat the mast. The reason for this is that there tends to be a lot of friction where battens and sail sit against the mast and I don't know just how well a painted finish would stand up to that. There would need to be a very good paint bond to the aluminium for the paint to not rub off.