Aluminum Spars

Submitted by MarkW on Fri, 07/12/2019 - 16:20

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I have come into possession of a set of Holt Allen Aluminium Spars i.e. Mast, Boom and Gaff. While the mast and boom are similar to the wooden counterparts the Gaff consists of a 44mm diameter Aluminium tube with a rope guide riveted on one side for the sail and the usual fittings on the other, however there are no gaff jaws, the gaff end being merely the tube sliced at a shallow angle over 500mm from full diameter to half diameter. There is evidence, on the mast, of this open end having slid up and down the mast.
Does anyone known anything about these spars and how the are rigged if different form a wooden set?
Is there something missing from the gaff?
I could post a picture, but I'm not sure if this is possible on this forum.

62816inBerlin's picture

62816inBerlin

Tue, 07/16/2019 - 13:44

Welcome a-online on the forum!
I've never heard of commercially available aluminium gaffs, but I suppose it's possible.
A Portuguese member of the facebook group "People who love Mirror Sailing Dinghies" made some of his own aluminium spars, I believe, to replace broken originals.
Pictures can be posted here, but only if you've got them accessible on-line elsewhere (see https://mirrordiscussforum.org/Drupal_02/node/35). If they are very important, you could send them me as an e-mail attachment (use the contact tab to message me first) and I can upload them for use here. However, as this is a privately run forum with limited resources, we cannot let everyone upload pictures freely.
Cheers,
Gernot H.

MarkW

Fri, 07/19/2019 - 09:44

Gernot H. thanks for your reply. Since posting the topic I have asked around for local knowledge on this and it was suggested, by a sail maker, that these were not from a Mirror. I have since compared the current wooden gaff with the aluminium gaff which on comparison is about 1ft longer. My conclusion is that these spars are not from a mirror but from some other gunter rigged dinghy so I have returned them from whence they came.