Wednesday 12 May 2010

Slow but steady progress

I suppose an update is about due as it appears a month has passed since the last one.Not much to see, but slowly putting the finishing touches to a load of loose ends.

The mast was completed and glued up before we lost the warm weather of April. I installed a couple of cables for mast head lights and a VHF antenna before sealing up.

It took quite a bit of work to plane to size and shape, and quite a bit of fiddling to get it to fit through the deck! We got there eventually and have since installed the halyard sheave and glassed the top section.

Cables installed internally

No going back, all sealed up

It fits - eventually!

One of the more unexciting things was the bending of the 12mm phosphor bronze rod for the furling drum axle. This required a fair bit of ingenuity to get it right, involving drilling several holes in large immoveable objects and wielding a brazing torch to anneal the work hardened metal. In the end it all worked out OK.

No easy bend!


Lots more going on to prepare for painting once the weather decides to warm up again. I've also had quotes back from my sailmakers and am about to place an order. Watch this space....