Tuesday 13 March 2018

Building the Mast - Chapter Three


That's the mast basically finished. It's now stored in the Great Hut with the plastic bag to stop people poking their eyes out on it, not ideal but better than this. 


The Great Hut started out in life as a boatbuilding workshop, then later we lived in it for two years while the house was built, by which time there was also a garage, which of course became the workshop and then the GH was suddenly taken over as a sort of women's retreat, complete with fridge, ashtrays, television, heater, seating and even a sewing machine. The spars will have to live here on suffrage, but I fear it won't be popular.

I'm quite pleased with the stage it's now at. It's a bit heavier than it could have been, but pretty strong and the glue joint is perfect.



I've now also made the boom, which is a rectangular hollow section, solid at the ends, and much easier to put together than the mast was. Here is the sequence:

First, strips about 5/8th inch put together, with a straight batten to keep them in order. Note cling film keeps the glue off the hands and clamps


Gluing done, ready to clean off and plane.


Flat top face, 1/2 inch thick, added. Another ten clamps borrowed for this.


Turned over the bottom face added.


Cleaned off, ends trimmed, corners rounded, preliminary sanding.


To finish off, the mast and boom will both need external blocks for strops and fittings, then outboard ends will get painted white and the finished spars varnished.

Like the mast, the boom is overweight, probably stronger than it needs to be by a huge margin, but I don't think that's too bad a thing. What now requires a lot of thought is how light I dare make the gunter yard/gaff/call it what you will, because weight aloft is a very bad thing. But of course so is a broken spar...

3 comments:

  1. Your mast and boom are beautiful and I love the history of the Great Hut! My wife and I lived in a minimalist owner built home for a summer and fall, back in the 1970s, and, though I'm grateful for modern conveniences, I do miss the personality of that place. Thanks for sharing what you do in your blog!

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  3. Great work!
    A bit of over-engineering is better than the opposite.

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The Wherrymen

The Wherrymen
Two old friends on the water