MacGregorSailors.com

So I ordered a new Boomvang that came with the Tattoo style mast base angle brackets (has addition slots for adding blocks on the bottom) from BWY. Not thinking I pulled off my original brackets, installed the new one and voila!! .....the stock mast bolt is too short. Not only that but I have a larger gap between the mast and the brackets. The stock brackets are the same size but the bolts holes to the deck are further apart as opposed to being centered on the newer brackets. Now I went ahead and ordered the quick mast pin at BWY but it hasn"t arrived yet and now I'm afraid that it will be too short. So now what? Should I just pick up a longer bolt and stick a few washers in there to shorten the gap? Will this screw up my rigging? Has anyone else run into this problem with replacing the stock angle brackets? My Mac 26m is the 2005 model. I'll upload some pictures tomorrow when the sun comes up.

Ok so I still haven't put photos up, but I did jerry rig the mast. I bought a 1/8 inch aluminum piece of stock from Homedepot and cut it into 4 sections equal to the length of the tattoo style bracket. I then drilled holes aligned with the bolt holes on the mast bracket and installed acting as a sort of shim, two on each side, closing the 1/2 inch gap. So far it works with no issues. My only concern is using the two dissimilar metals over time. I think it will be ok consider the size of the aluminum spacers. Any thoughts?

Dialectic grease between the dissimilar metals will stop issues between the stainless and the aluminium, one should always put a barrier between unsimilar metals or it can get messy pretty quickly and fail at the worst possible time as our dear friend Murphy keeps showing us

I'm lost. Perhaps photos would help.

Something seems wrong.
Are you talking about the removable bolt?
If so, I don't understand why the bracket is not the same dimension as the original.

The boom vang should attach to the base of the mast (angled tab), not the deck hardware.

The 2005-2007 had a bigger "thicker" mast so likely the base brkt,s r different ! than the 2008 on to the Tattoo brkt,s , did u tell BWY the year of ur or did u just order new brkt,s on line assuming they were all the same ?
maybe u should contact BWY & ask !
J

Ok so here are the requested photos. As you can see, I made aluminum shims to fit the mast. I also put in a photo with a comparison to the original brackets.





Thanks for the advice on the dialectic grease.

I do need to shave the shims down a bit, they're coming in contact with the rotating mast. You can see where they are rubbing against the shims in the previous photo.

We are a little puzzled as to exactly what is going on here, but first to clear a few things up. 1) The boom vang kit in question is to lead the vang control line aft, so the block for that does attach to the new style mast base angles this is a new kit we are offering that lets you run it aft without it pulling the mast to one side . 2) All of the mast are the same thickness (width) on all of the boats, the earlier boats had a mast that was deeper front to back, but the same width. 3) The mast angles for the Tattoo 26 were different, but these are made as direct replacements for the Mac.

What is puzzling is that we have a 2005 M in our shop right now and the new parts in inventory line up exactly with the original parts on that boat BUT clearly the bolt holes are in a different place on the old angles on eodjedi's boat, we will continue to research this so we can make sure no one else has to go through this inconvenience.