Manly mast

Mast is back up finally!

Below are pics of her tied up at the overseas terminal, and my mixings for making up some red lead paint to line the mast step. You can still buy the stuff ready mixed for a lot of money from chandleries, but it is way cheaper to make up yourself: It's just a mixture of powdered lead tetroxide, boiled linseed oil and a drying agent. You can sometimes get the lead powder from potters' supplies as it is used in glazeware. You're not allowed to deal in it any more but most suppliers have some out the back somewhere left over from when the ban came in, and are glad to get something for it. I think I've just about cleaned all the locals out though now! It's rather silly, considering that epoxies are just as, if not more, poisonous.

Anyway, now she looks a little more like a boat. Trouble with the starboard backstay though: The pin that attaches is to the mast cap is stiff, and I have to go up and bang it back into alignment. What a pain. Still, the rigging fits very well. Croft carriers who I hired the hiab from are great. Quickly and effiently done, and they only charged $40.

I quite like the view of the boat from above - you can get a good idea of how strong she is in the hips.

Mast finishing finished

Well that's done. A week over schedule in Dave's shed but he didn't mind which is good. Milan and Mike gave me a hand on the weekend getting it on the boat. Just waiting for Duffy now to get his stuff on the wiring done and she'll be back up. The brightwork is two coats of thinned Everdure and then 12 coats of Goldspar original. The white paint is two-pot epoxy. The other two pictures are of my shed taken from the water. I took them whilst rowing back because it looked rather choice.

More on the Mast

Well it took almost 3 full days' work to get the mast scraped and sanded but it is done and I"m on the fourth coat of varnish. Trev and and apprentice from Duffy's helped me carry it around to the shed, I measured up all the rigging and all labelled, took it back to Duffy's to give me a quote on the replacement. Andy the caretaker then helped me get it into Vice Commodore Dave's long shed, as my mast won't get into mine. Cheers Dave - I don't think it'll be in there too long.

The first picture here is of the original (made of Douglas Fir) and my replacement (Mahogany) support for the mainsail track as it feeds up the mast. The glue had failed, and as the original had a bit of green growth on it I thought it would be best to attach a new one. Then follow:

Spreader ends (spreaders are of Jarrah and look great)
Mast head (galvanised steel)
Scraping
Everdure on
All priming done.

The thing is looking really shiny now, so when the finish is done I'll post up the pic.

Thank goodness for mates

All tied up in the evening.

Yesterday I finally got the mast out of Shemara. A few days ago Ben took his lunch break to come down and help me paddle her to the wharf for the crane. The Northerly was a bit too strong so it didn't happen. A few days later Mike steered her while I dragged her out with the tender. I spent the night on her to guard against yahoos, removed all the rigging, and booked the crane for that morning.

Trev (who can be seen here in the white jumper on launch day) lent a hand at the time of the hoist out and towed me back with his lovely little launch "Cygnet". Crofts, the crane company, were great. It only cost 80 bucks. In the final picture you can see the penny which has stuck to the foot of the mast. Lucky it's there because modern coins are made of rubbish metal.