ILCA Lower Mast Wear Kit – PROtect Tapes

Your ILCA lower mast spends every hour on the water turning and rocking inside the mast tube. Aluminium against plastic and gelcoat wears both ways, and you see it as grey dust in the mast step, a scored band just above deck level, and eventually slop in the step itself. This kit puts a hard, slippery layer between the two.

The tape is a 500 micron UHMWPE film on a strong acrylic adhesive. UHMWPE has an extremely low coefficient of friction and is effectively self-lubricating, so the mast turns more freely than it does on bare aluminium and the film takes the abrasion instead of your spar. Once the adhesive has cured it stays put, and it does not soften after a weekend of being wet.

You get two strips, each 51 mm wide and 200 mm long. That length wraps the lower mast once, so one strip goes at the mast step and the other at the deck collar. At 0.5 mm the film sits inside the 1 mm uniform thickness that ILCA Rule 19(a) allows for mast step abrasion protection, but check your current class rules before a championship.

Fitting takes five minutes. Clean and dry the aluminium first, peel the liner, wrap the strip and press it down hard. Leave it 24 hours before sailing so the adhesive builds full strength.

Why Choose PROtect Tapes

PROtect Tapes makes technical protective films used right across the sport, from Optimists to IMOCA 60s, and the one design kits are developed with the sailors who use them.