Yeah,.. they're hard to get

Posted By: Jay H, Sea Pearl 21, Seaward 24, Yankton SD
Date: 4/2/09 2:48p.m.

Report: outside forum guidelines

In Response To: Mast rings on Sea Pearl (Ernie Brown Sea Pearl, past Fox owner)

I had placed an order and then waited quite a long time, finally the existing rings broke into several pieces and were un-repairable so I got tired of waiting and fabricated my own, Wouldn't you know it... a few days after I installed my homemade ones, the rings I ordered showed up in the mail. The homemade rings that I installed are working fine and don't really need to be replaced but I'm going to do it anyway since I paid for a set of new ones. The process I used to make them is really pretty simple. I took a piece of PVC pipe that is just slightly bigger than the mast base and cut it into a bunch of rings about 1/2 inch thick, then I cut a small chunk out of each ring for proper size, heated them in the oven till pliable and while still soft formed them around the base of the mast till they cooled and got solid, Then I just marked and drilled the holes, counter sunk them and attached with small screws and a drop of locktite. When I do install the new delrin rings this Spring, I am going to rivet them, but the screws hold just fine as far as I can see. The whole screw/rivet debate rages on and on in the Sea Pearl groups. If you need some rings, I'd gladly send you some of the spares I made. It was so easy that I made about a dozen extra and will never use them. These 5 have been in the back seat of our jeep since last Spring and I've got another box full in the garage. Typical of me... one spare is plenty, 10 spares is nirvana Here's how they look installed And FWIW... here's the delrin rings that I ordered. I like the tapered edges and I would imagine that the delrin would have less friction inside the mast tube, but a little shot of silicone takes care of that. BTW, have you been to the Sea Pearl forum on Yahoo groups? It's a good bunch of folks on that site and tons of info in the archives. You should check it out if you haven't yet. (hope this link works) http://groups.yahoo.com/group/seapearl/