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Hello, I have a UK CK33/35 whose masts are nearly equal. Basically it's impossible to site a light below masthead height that has 360 degree visibility, and some years ago, I put an LED all-round white on the front mast, BUT, I very nearly got run down in a very dark loch by a big black fishing boat...

Thanks Matt, and oops:- the rudder lifted 10mm not 10cm. When using a staysail, you can do without a runner in light winds, or might better lead its halyard aft and out to the rail, but beware that it can become very powerful in a gust and it's probably bigger than the backsail and less prone to spi...

Thanks Gerald. Seeing as how we're in General Sailing: Yachting Images used to come to West Highland Week and offer licensed copies of their snaps after the races. I bought a few - not cheap - but hey! - so in following regattas, they always came to me and I got more, including in some sort of anniv...

Hello, I have flown the staysail while racing with some success, but it's lot of work. It can go between the masts when goosewinged - tacked to the weather rail amidships or when reaching with the tack well forward. In both cases, the sheet is lead to the end of the backsail wishbone, then forward t...

Hello, Is it a UK-built boat, in which case it will be very similar to mine? The first time you do this it may take as much as one day per mast. First of all, measure and photograph exactly where the masts are at the keel, to the millimetre. Sideways and fore/aft. Disconnect wires and antennae and r...

Hi Gerald and all, The reason for my interest is purely financial. Say I lost the front mast and sail and the underwriters got iffy about the back mast, the 'Bavaria' rig would almost certainly be cheaper than sourcing or making new masts and would be something that boat and mast makers would take o...

Hello, Not so daft. I've often speculated about what to do if I lost a mast and one option seems to be to get a bog standard rig, maybe for some ghastly Bavaria or similar and land the mast where the toilet aft bulkhead is. Maybe get a stainless 'ring' made up in sections to go right round the insid...

Hello, Weight is the same as displacement. There are many other 'tonnage' measures, mostly for commercial vessels. I understand that the F33/35 has a lot of weight in the centreboard (half a tonne?) plus internal lead ballast giving a total weight/displacement as you state. The LK version has a lead...

Re lamp poles, these were very hard to come by until about 20 years ago when they started sprouting, particularly in coastal areas where corrosion resistance was important. I measured the local ones and they matched my masts. So just need a digger and a dark night(?) but I have spoken to some roads ...

Bill, this is all I have and it's a scan of a copy of a print etc.

Also an interesting, but irrelevant email about the early F40 masts.

Mike.