This is the newest section of the website and is still a work in progress (September 2025). At the moment I am collecting information about various masts (old and new) to help in matching sails with masts. I've added this section because Ive been curious about using my vintage sails on more modern masts. Lets face it...2 piece masts are much easier to carry around. My general reading on the topic suggested the Modern masts were softer than vintage masts and while that appears to be true for my 1992 Neil Pryde V-Glass compared to a more modern Excel 2 piece masts or even a Chinook, I feel my mid 80's FiberSPas and Mistral masts are softer again. (Hence this page)

There are obviously several elements to mast selection including the Curve, the weight and the stiffness. Unlike modern sails our vintage sails tend to work on most masts - remembering back in the day there wasnt a lot of choice and of those masts available there wasnt neccessarily a lot of data available except the length!

The MCS (Mast Check System) was a way to rate the stiffness of masts prior to 1994 when the IMCS (Index Mast Check System) was intoduced. With both the MCS and IMCS a HIGHER number means a STIFFER mast. The problem with the MCS was it didnt allow comparison of different length masts.

When you are looking for a replacement mast for your vintage sail you might want to consider either buying an era correct mast (second hand) or look at a modern mast with a similar IMCS as the MCS rated masts of the era.

To help convert MCS (pre 1994) to IMCS use the following table that lists Mast length in CM and conversion factor of MCS

540 1.35

530 1.30

520 1.25

510 1.20

500 1.16

490 1.11

480 1.07

470 1.02

460 0.98

450 0.94

440 0.90

430 0.86

420 0.82

410 0.78

400 0.74

390 0.70

For example I have a 1990 460cm V-Glass 30 Neil Pryde mast with a MCS rating of 27 to convert it to IMCS 27 X 0.98 = 26.5 Now compare that to a modern Chinook 40% 460cm mast with documented IMCS of 25. The more modern mast (Chinook) has a little more flex to it. Weight is also different with the old Neil Pryde weighing in at 2.8kg and the modern Chinook weighing in at 2.64kg. 

Note : I thought IMCS was supposed to standardize all masts against a 460cm standard mast so Im not sure why there is a 0.98 conversion factor for 460 masts (maybe its just the specific mathematics vs the generalistic usage and rounding)

Note rated as IMCS