video/f1sail_large.asp

This link above leads directly to a really cool video from the www.f1sail.com  website.
It is skiff sailing and in this case 18 footer sailing at its best.

Can you figure out what this mast is in the photo and why it is tapered this way? The mast is tapered and you can see the halyard exits, so we are at the deck level / bottom end of the mast. Photo was taken in 1986. Answer is at the bottom of the page.

http://www.skiff.org.nz
The 12 footer skiff page above contains movies of 12 footers 'sending it' and numerous photographs of some of the best sailing that NZ has to offer at the highest possible skill level.

Answer to the Trivia question:
This mast was built for a sailing boat that was never sailed. The old mast corroded away. The mast was built but on stepping the builders found that it did not fit through the deck collar. Since the mast was never used and the boat was never sailed, it was only ornamental. The solution was to taper the mast so that it would fit through the deck collar. This photo was taken shortly before it was ready to take back down the yacht again for the second attempt at stepping the mast. The UK mast maker is famous but no longer in business, the home port of the boat was not in the UK.