Author: grjolly
Episode 56!
Episode 55 – Sampson Post and Battery Bank
Finishing Our Main Mast – Ep54
Episode 53 – Building Our Main Mast
Episode 52 – From Bulwarks to Mast
Episode 51 – From Plank to Soup
Week Two Building The Main
This is a picture filled post! Building the mast was such a fun project. Garrett really got into it. Every stage had huge visual satisfaction!
Now that the mast is glued up and planed smooth Garrett could mark his lines to eight-side the mast. The first step to getting the main round. Garrett figured out his measurements on the corners to make the mast close to an even circle but since the lumber isn’t perfectly uniform the mast will be slightly oval.
Garrett drilled a hole in his square so he could put the point of the pencil to the correct mark and just drag the square down the length of the mast. Since the square has a lip he could put it on the edge of the lamination and have a consistent line. He checked by eye each line then we flipped the mast over until he had all four lines marked. Then came the skill saw. The new dwalt is awesome! and has an easy lock to 45 degrees. Simple.
I can’t wait to make the episode about this. The whole process was really cool. Let the sawdust fly!
Garrett put a lot of thought into the orientation of each board in the laminate. Taking into consideration we were cutting away the corners so that any board with major imperfections would be placed where those defects would be removed during the process without any extra steps. A few flaws were unavoidable but they don’t diminish the strength of the mast.
Once all four cuts were made we had an octagon spar.
Oh boy, we will call that a day!
We had just beautiful weather the entire duration of this project. Every morning blue and warm. This stands out to me now as I write listening to the rain falling outside.
Before we plane and sand the whole thing round Garrett broke out the plans to figure out the placement of the hounds. The hounds are what our rigging wraps around to help secure the mast upright.
He figured out the location then grabbed some locust to do the job.
This was another fun part of the mast project. He got to use his new chisels and new compact router as well as the lignum vitae mallet passed down to him from an old neighbor in the yard. All of you following and the kind donors have significantly improved our quality of life and labor! We can’t thank you enough.
This wrapped up another day. The following day was a long day of planing, sanding, and sighting.
Plane one corner than festool sander. Next side. Plane, sand. Roll mast. Plane, sand. Look. Plane a little more, sand smoothish. Look. Next corner. Repeat. Hydrate. Repeat.
Starting to see it now!
We tag teamed with the finish and orbital sanders and presto!
Roundish.
Before we can layer on the soup Garrett shaped the mast head. Using his compact router again and his, also new, hand plane. Then the usual suspects; the sanders.
After this, one…more…thing.
Mounting the hounds:
The tube of sika flex got a little clog then exploded. Good thing it’s long open time. There will be through-bolts also, we just haven’t run to the hardware store yet, but we had left over fasteners from our topside planking to use.
Drum roll please. Introducing my favorite part. SOUP.
Soup = pine tar+linseed oil+varnish+japan dryer
We keep adding to this gallon so there’s probably a few other ingredients floating around in there. Every sailor has their own brew that is ever developing like a good Mexican mole.
There it is.
A couple more coats then we’ll move it to storage in the yard awaiting for the month we’re ready to motor Rediviva back to the launch ramp to freshen her bottom paint and step the masts!
May has brought some more rain which will hopefully force us to get back to the engine, which we’ve been putting off because it’s so much nicer to be outside. We got back to town two days ago from my brother’s graduation from Boise State! Another trip is on the books to visit friends in Oregon and maybe a drive out to the property in Washington where Rediviva had her start! Busy spring but productive and full 🙂
~Ruthie
50th Episode!
Building Our Main Mast
In Washington, where we built most of the boat, we cut down some trees for masts. This was about 3 years ago. With still having so much to think and do to build the boat our masts were neglected. We jumped a little ahead of ourselves and didn’t give the spars the attention they deserved. Rediviva is a gaff ketch which means she’ll have two masts, a taller one up forward (the main) and a shorter spar (the mizzen) aft. Now our main is still in good shape but the mizzen has a kink at one end. The trees being green needed to be turned every so often to remain straight and dry evenly, this didn’t happen as often as the mizzen needed. Our mizzen will not be scrapped we can still cut it up and use it for our main boom and gaff. Repurposed.
The main will now be the mizzen and we will build a better stick for our main. The new main will be laminated which will be stronger and we can control the taper. The main will not have any taper until you reach the hounds. The hounds are what the stays rap around. The stays are the wire rigging that hold the mast up. The four feet at the top of the mast will taper down a bit and then be painted white, as is tradition. The rest of the spar will be souped. Now to do this project we’ve gone back to the Napa Valley Marina and asked if they might rent us a space. The boatyard has been so amazing to us and found a little corner of the yard 40 feet long, exactly what we need, and about 5 feet wide for us to work.
That day we got started. First Garrett had to build 7 level stands for us to work from. The mast needs to be straight!
The lamination is five layers. 3 layers are two 20 footers and the other 2 layers consist of a 16 footer and two 12 footers. We did a test clamp up to make sure we had enough.
It took every clamp we owned and we made some 2by clamps as well. The 2by clamps are to keep the sides of the mast together and the million other clamps are to clamp it down tight.
To make sure the mast is straight Garrett also ran a string taut and then fastened little blocks to each stand. We put the first layer down and added another set of blocks to the other side. This seemed like such a huge project but once you get to doing it it’s just a matter of taking the steps and getting it done. Our keel timber was done is this very same way. It wasn’t as long but it was much wider and many more layers. This time we had, Garrett’s brother, Reid’s help to glue.
3 sets of hands is better than 2. We laid wax paper under the mast and over the blocks. It’s amazing for how sticky epoxy is it doesn’t adhere to wax or parchment paper.
Garrett and Reid spread out the epoxy while I made batch after batch of slightly thickened epoxy. It must’ve been 2 hours and the epoxy was spread on both sides of every layer and stacked. Then we worked quickly to get ALL the clamps on. Garrett’s hands wrenched them all tight, Reid laid down the wax paper, and I went around the mast scrapping the excess. Sorry there aren’t more photos of the lay up…sticky hands, but the camera was rolling.
This was a long day that deserved the reward of a taco night! We made all 12 of the 2by clamps that morning, glued, clamped, and cleaned. There was awesome spill out of every seem meaning we have a solid lamination.
The next morning we drove out to see how she was settling. The first 2 layers were hard but the other 3 were still a little tacky. Good excuse to take the beautiful day off. We didn’t do anything interesting. Mostly sat outside in the shade with a glass of wine then made dinner. Garrett still couldn’t help himself from opening the computer and doing more research. On what? Who knows. “Everything,” he said to me.
The epoxy was frozen in time. Tough as nails. It feels really nice working in the boatyard. You just have to make sure you don’t stay too long. That’s the problem with yards. People get stuck. It can feel like a place where boats go to die but in this yard there are all types of projects. Weekend haul outers, mast builders, simple bottom jobs, some serious rebuilds, and the projects that never leave too. The hum of the yard is encouraging. Everyone slowly chipping and grinding away. We’re happy to be refreshing our relationship with the yard because come July (or so) we will be hauling Rediviva. As the summer heat is approaching we want to try and keep the haul out to a week or two just to add a few more layers of bottom paint and, drum roll please, step the masts!
Removing the clamps revealed one straight square mast. Now to shape. The main will be round and to get it there Garrett must first 8 side the mast (with the skill saw) and then plane those edges and then stepping down from Festool, to orbital, to finish sander. Glueing was the easy part 😉
The electric hand plane was up to bat first. Cleaning all four sides smooth. It wasn’t too bad as I scrapped as much as I could but behind the wax paper and clamps the epoxy was thick.
The glue between layers looked great. Garrett was very satisfied. This day also included cutting off the over hang of both the top and bottom to get the mast to 39 feet. The top end is flush but the bottom has the male (peg) partner for the mast step. Both masts are keel stepped. This means the masts go through the deck and sits atop a wood block (the mast step) with a female square carved out to receive the mast. It will be a snug fit and where the mast passes through the deck there will be locust wedges to snug it and then a canvas boot to keep the water out.
All this work
and
NO HELP
from Swab
… he was busy though… eating sticks.
We started last Wednesday and a week into the project today Garrett is almost done ruff rounding the mast. This post is just the first 3 days! To keep our yard fees down we hope to finish and move that mast to storage here until we’re ready to bring Rediviva back down river. The goal is to have the mast finished in two weeks. One more week to go and we are looking good. It’s nice to know that when we’re motivated the work goes quick. We’ll have to finish installing the motor and get the bowsprit and windlass situated and if we still have time maybe plank the deck!
Whoo! All this work in the spring and summer will hopefully pay off in the fall when we can hoist some sails!!!
Salt & Tar 