Thank you all for all the advice. However plans have been put on hold for a while. My younger brother got a year long contract in Dublin and needed some cheap accommodation. We sailed Rougette down to Dun Laoghaire last week. So I am boatless for a year. I shall hopefully use this time to look into all the ways I might acquire a mast.

michael

 Staved timber mast

Hi Michael

I have built 24 staved timber mast out straight Oregon planks 50 mm thick

The mast has been in use for 10 years. Each mast took me 3 month to build.

In JRA Magazine 66 page 10 I have shown, how it could be done

Thanks for all the replies, most grateful. My hopes for a very cheap mast seem to have been dashed. 

Annie I did not know that about my local junkies so maybe I will contact them.

I believe using a grown mast would involve many months waiting for 

it to dry out and then shaping it. The birdsmouth method would give me a mast very quickly.

If I had sufficient funds I would call ALC to find out what they would

charge for a 10m tapered column delivered to Ardoran Marine, Leargs by 

Oban but am afraid to ask.

About the PT wood. Before I raised the question I did do a search on the web and the 

consensus seem to be that as long as the wood was given sufficient time to dry

it would be ok for gluing. The treatment adds moisture to the wood and it is this 

which causes the problem with gluing.

I also had a crazy thought that I could fill the core of the hollow mast with

closed cell foam to give it more structural integrity.

Anyway I will go away and think some more.

Michael

There is an exception to the clear grain timber rule: There may well be some knots in masts, either solid or dug out, made directly from a trunk of wood. These knots stand at right angle to the surface and do no harm.

Besides, if boats only could be built from clear, knot-free timber, then there would not have been any boatbuilding in my country, which there certainly has been, and still is.

What I admire most with local wooden-boat builders (apart from their skills with their axe), is their ability to ‘read’ the wood and make sure the knots are placed so they do no harm (no knots at the plank’s edge, for instance).

That said, I agree that the originally shown ‘fence planks’ didn’t look good for masts, with the knots all over the planks and in awkward positions.

Arne

I've only tried to epoxy pressure treated wood once, and it did not hold well.  I really wouldn't do it on a mast.

To echo David, though, the problem with the wood you have indicated is that the quality is way below what you want.  Knots in the wood, depending on location and orientation can reduce the piece's strength to almost zero.  Clear straight grain is the way to go.  

That said, I have had some luck with the general big-box stores like Lowes or Home Depot.  You buy carefully selected large width and length 2x8, 2x10, or 2x12s, and rip the outer sides off, which can give you straight grain quarter sawn Douglas fir. If you flip them end for end, you can mitigate out some of the imperfections. You throw away the middle piece, which is nearly always flat cut.

But I wouldn't do that for a mast, though, either.  Dimensional lumber like that is usually kiln dried and has all sorts of internal stresses that make themselves known six months after assembly in the form of twists and bends.

You want to make friends with your local sawmill.  Explain what you're looking for, and how you want to use it.  They are usually helpful and knowledgeable.  Sometimes they are real scoundrels, too, so do your homework.