>It is a one piece mast that runs all the way to the keel. I would like to know if anyone has any knowledge on how to put a hinge on the mast (cut mast install a hinge of ???) A number of Grand Banks owners have faced this same question, although the mast of a GB does not run to the keel but is stepped either on the aft cabin top or the aft end of the flying bridge deck. The issue in these cases has been needing clearance to fit the boats into a boathouse. In the cases where the mast was cut and hinged, all the hinge systems I recall reading about on the GB owners forum were custom made from stainless steel. From the photos that were posted, they seemed to be pretty simple hinges. Basically two plates, either square or rounded to conform to the mast shape, with a large hinge formed into the front (or back) of the plates with a removable pin. One plate is bolted or welded to the base of the upper part of the mast, the other to the top of the lower part. The hinging itself seemed to be the easy part. More tricky was figuring out how to deal with the cables running up through the mast to a radar antenna, lights, etc. and the mast support stays. Earlier GBs have solid wood masts with a V-shaped channel cut for the cables and then filled with a wood "plug." Later GBs have metal masts, I believe powder-coated aluminum. Owners of boats with both types of masts have successfully cut and hinged them. Some of the solutions I've seen described on the GB owners forum had the mast hinging backward to rest on a brace attached to the aft cabin top. However the best solutions seemed to be the ones that had the top part of the mast hinging forward to rest on a brace on the flying bridge. Again, a search of the Oxford Yacht Agency's "repair" archives should yield the discussions that have been held on this subject. ______________________________ C. Marin Faure GB36-403 "La Perouse" Bellingham, Washington [demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type application/ms-tnef which had a name of winmail.dat]