DIY spar carrier - pay $5 or less

[lakemaclaser]

Most Laser sailors carry their spars (mast sections, boom) on their boat while trailing it. To protect the boat and the spars, some people use specially designed spar foam protectors (two of them). They're basically hard foam with sections cut out to fit three tubes (2x mast, 1x boom) at each end. They sit on the deck of the boat and stop the boat (or the spars) being damaged in transport or storage. The commercial version is about A$90 for two bits of foam.

I thought this was a bit steep, so I made my own from an old boogie board. I got the boogie board from the local tip's 'recycle mart', where they flog off stuff that people have dumped at the tip. Cost me A$5. The boogie board had a plastic 'wrap' around the dense foam, which made it doubly ideal - makes it nice and strong when cut.

Then, I cut two sections across the widest part of the boogie board, using a sharp bread knife and a sawing action. A panel saw would probably do the same job. Each section was about 130 mm wide.

Then I cut three rough semi-circle holes in each foam piece using the knife (a saw is too big to do this!), in which the spars would sit. I left about 20 mm of foam 'below' the holes, to leave some strength in the foam pieces. I tested the spars in the cut-out holes for size one by one, then shaved off a little more until each hole was right. Each spar is a different cross section, so each hole has to be a slightly different size.

Finally, on the 'bottom' of each foam piece, I cut two slots and dug out the foam a little (but not too much - the foam compresses under load, giving better 'fixing' to the deck). The front one sits over the cunningham cleat on my boat (original Laser gear), while the rear one sits over the traveller tensioning cleat. These prevent the foam pieces from sliding around on the deck.

I use two ratchet-straps around the spars to tie them and the boat to the trailer and my spars don't move at all when they bounce around on the rough roads around Lake Macquarie!

Stephen