20240515

When I was first building the mast for Hatseflats in 2018 I created a 100cm inner sleeve to reinforce the lower mast but could not bend the sleeve enough to slide it into the mast. I was in a hurry and believed the mast would be fine without the sleeve so I left it as it was and had the sleeve stored in my garage for years.
After the 2023 Semaine du Golfe I had decided to finally complete this task. I bought hose clamps at the DIY store to bend the sleeve to fit into the mast. My first attempt with galvanised clamps failed because the sleeve was still too big.
I cut another strip of the sleeve to make a better fit and tried again. This time the galvanised clamps locked up and I had to replace them with stainless steel clamps. I was now able to squeeze the sleeve to fit within the mast and slide the sleeve into the mast a couple of inches at the time. After each section I moved the clamps, applied the tension to squeeze the sleeve and tried again. Sliding the sleeve into the mast took about half an hour.
Note that the 3mm sleeve expanded into the mast. No need to glue or rivet it into place. The final touch was to trim the remainder of the sleeve. The bottom part now has a wall thickness of 6mm which should be sufficient for my adventures.

Inner sleeve with cutouts to avoid hard spots in the mast.

Feeding the sleeve into the mast inch by inch.

Trimmed the remains of the sleeve.