Mast Base

With some persuasion I have been able to remove the two upright beams that help hold up the mast base. If I wasn’t able to remove these beams I would have to replace the rotten horizontal beam layer by layer. However now I can fibreglass the beam outside the boat and put it into place as a single piece.

I traced the curve of the roof onto a large piece of chipboard, I screwed small blocks of wood to this chipboard and clamped the strips of ply to bend them into shape.

Unfortunately during the process of bending after I applied the bog (50-50 weight ratio of resin to talc powder) the top piece of plywood snapped and the new beam became misshapen. This was the second time I had glued it all up as the first time the resin did not set after five days. I think due to moisture still in the plywood and the weather being far too cold. The second time I used twice as much catalyst and used a heat gun on the bog as i put each layer together.

I started again with thinner ply which bent easier, used double the amount of catalyst and the heat gun again, added extra blocks to the chipboard to hold the shape better so now I am just waiting for the resin to go off. I have a kerosene heater helping to warm it up.

Mast Spreader

A very generous person took the mast spreader home and repaired it for me. They removed the broken end of the tube and replaced it with an aluminium plug which would match the same size. It is glued into place with metal glue. The cap at the end is just standard PVC pipe fittings which I purchased from Bunnings.

I used a dremmel and a drill to cut the slots for the wire and trim down the length of the cap. Once I am ready to put these back on the mast I will use some glue to hold them in place.