Always a worthy subject. It should be noted that Duckworks now sells some nice sleek low-profile masthead floats, courtesy of their new sailmaker John Allison. https://duckworks.com/mast-head-float/
Make the uppermost part of the sail two ply. Put 1/2” foam inside. 4sqft should give 10 pounds buoyancy without any drag caused by masthead floats. Never tried it.
One issue with this is that when you reef, lowering the sail, you are also lowering the angle of your bouyancy. And, it is likely that you are going to need the bouyancy most in situations when you shold be reefing.
Keeping an aluminum mast from filling with water is half the battle with turtling. Seal the ends. And/or fill it with pool noodles, starting from the top end. Or ping-pong balls, like Hughes' used in his Spruce Goose. Also, B&B Yacht has a couple of float kits, ahttps://bandbyachtdesigns.com/building-supplies-and-tools/hardware-and-rigging/masts-track-and-more/mast-head-floats/ and there's a link to the discussion of floats and calculations.
In a similar vein: use water totes or bags as ballast, as they will have neutral buoyancy if you should be swamped, and won't take your boat to the bottom.
I sail a 60 year old GP14. She still has her spruce mast. I use the spinnaker halyard to run an inflatable float up the mast before I go sailing. The last thing I want to do is turtle that boat and risk snapping the mast.
I've thought about something like this, it would be nice to raise and lower the float. Of course it's just vanity, but I like the way the boat looks without the ball float on top.
B&B yacht designs, the designers of the core sound boats now sell mast float kits that minimize drag and rotate like a wind vane https://bandbyachtdesigns.com/30lb-mast-head-float-kit/
Always a worthy subject. It should be noted that Duckworks now sells some nice sleek low-profile masthead floats, courtesy of their new sailmaker John Allison. https://duckworks.com/mast-head-float/
Make the uppermost part of the sail two ply. Put 1/2” foam inside. 4sqft should give 10 pounds buoyancy without any drag caused by masthead floats. Never tried it.
One issue with this is that when you reef, lowering the sail, you are also lowering the angle of your bouyancy. And, it is likely that you are going to need the bouyancy most in situations when you shold be reefing.
Keeping an aluminum mast from filling with water is half the battle with turtling. Seal the ends. And/or fill it with pool noodles, starting from the top end. Or ping-pong balls, like Hughes' used in his Spruce Goose. Also, B&B Yacht has a couple of float kits, ahttps://bandbyachtdesigns.com/building-supplies-and-tools/hardware-and-rigging/masts-track-and-more/mast-head-floats/ and there's a link to the discussion of floats and calculations.
How, if at all, has the windage / drag affected your pointability, speed, light air performance, etc.?
In a similar vein: use water totes or bags as ballast, as they will have neutral buoyancy if you should be swamped, and won't take your boat to the bottom.
I sail a 60 year old GP14. She still has her spruce mast. I use the spinnaker halyard to run an inflatable float up the mast before I go sailing. The last thing I want to do is turtle that boat and risk snapping the mast.
I've thought about something like this, it would be nice to raise and lower the float. Of course it's just vanity, but I like the way the boat looks without the ball float on top.