When we bought our boat, it didn’t have a mast. Not a broken mast. Not a damaged mast. Just… no mast at all. A sailboat without its most important feature is a strange sight, and it became even stranger once we started learning why.
From the moment we took ownership, everyone seemed to have a different theory about how the mast disappeared. Some said it was cut off after getting tangled in fishing nets while crossing the Irish Sea. Others insisted it had something to do with wind turbines — a collision, a near miss, a freak gust. The stories changed depending on who you asked, and none of them matched. To this day, we still don’t know what actually happened.
While we “motorsailed” around Windermere (really just motoring with a mastless rig), other boat owners would stop us to share their version of the mast disaster. Every trip turned into a new chapter of folklore about our boat. It was funny, confusing, and honestly a bit entertaining.
The previous owner had tried to solve the problem in the most chaotic way possible: by buying a pile of second‑hand masts, hoping one would magically fit. Spoiler — none of them did. Different lengths, different profiles, different fittings… it was like trying to match puzzle pieces from three different boxes.
Eventually, we decided to do it properly. We reached out to Selden and Z‑Spars, hoping one of them could help us figure out what our boat actually needed. After a lot of back‑and‑forth, measurements, photos, and head‑scratching, we chose Z‑Spars to custom‑build a brand‑new mast — complete with standing and running rigging.
Whilst Z Spars set about building everything, it left us plenty of times to make sure everything was perfect our end. Before the mast could be stepped, we had to make a long list of modifications and prep work on the Catalina. Reinforcing fittings, checking chainplates, aligning hardware, making sure everything would match the new rig — it was a project in itself. Around six months passed before the mast was ready. But when it finally arrived, it was perfect. Brand new, built to spec, and ready to bring the boat back to life. A massive thank you to Z Spars for helping to ensure the project ran smoothly!.
Seeing the boat with its new mast for the first time felt like a transformation. The strange mastless motorsailer was finally a proper sailboat again. After months of mystery, rumours, research, and hard work, she was ready to sail the way she was meant to, and we couldn’t wait to get stuck into learning how to sail!