My mast collar came loose last week after a previous repair using V1 of the RS collar replacement kit which lasted about a year. I went to order a V2 kit and saw that they are £46.58 incl. vat.

I decided to try to do it without the kit, re-using my current mast collar. 

The repair seems to have been a success so I thought I'd share my experience in case it helps others.

The repair is more or less the same as using the RS kit - the instructions are here : https://www.rssailingstore.com/files//96c64062-e5a0-446e-887b-ac5900ac9083/Aero%20instructions%20-%20MAST%20COLLAR%20REPAIR%20V2.pdf

There are just two additional steps that I did:

1) It's important not to damage the mast heel plug. To avoid damage, I wrapped a couple of layers of electrical insulating tape around the bottom of the mast and then fastened a jubilee clip around the lowest part of the mast (see the picture to see what I mean). The clip was almost tightened but still had enough 'give' to be able to move around the mast. This then enabled me to tap the worm gear section of the clip a couple of times, then move it around a bit, then tap again, move again, tap again, etc. Over the course of around 10 minutes, the plug gradually came out. It was a tight fit but patience enabled me to remove it with almost no damage. Half way through, I reapplied tape where it was starting to wear. I emphasise - this needs patience. But it DID work.

2) The other important additional step was to clean the inside of the mast collar before using it again. This just required a bit of patience - the inside of the collar has lots of small grooves and I systematically cleared teach of hese out and roughed the inner surfaces using a needle file. I then used a curved file all around the inside of the collar and finally cleaned the whole thing thoroughly with pure alcohol.

Other than this, just follow the RS instructions. You'll need some masking tape, gloves and some epoxy glue (I used standard araldite). If you already have the tools and a spare jubilee clip sitting around then the cost of materials is around £3.

I hope this is helpful.

Dave