New mast in old boat and what to do about the partners

[allene]

On the Garhauer approach, what if I hold it down with a 1/4 inch bolt every 1.5 inches. That would be 26 bolts and 6.5 inches of linear surface compared to 8 inches for the mast partners. If that wasn't enough, I could use 5/16 bolts and get 8 inches. Seems like bigger bolts would do the same thing as spacers although it would be threads in one case and a smooth surface in the other unless the bolts had a significant unthreaded section like a carriage bolt.