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The mast design and build presented some fast learning of new words and a few headaches along the way. The team
at All Yacht Spars were kind enough to supply most of the equipment and while their plans were rather scant, our preferences in equipment
position soon resolved the positioning problem. What also provided a great deal of help was a morning with a friend on his EASY and
he kindly went through all the fitting positions, the do’s and don’ts, and preferences. We took their preferences and canvassed a
few others then made our own call. So…we will find out soon if this was worth the battle.
We quickly found too that there were many fancy words, and saying ‘rope’ is a definite no-no (used only when one talks about the raw
material or about the piece of ‘rope’ below the ships bell). Its a halyard (used to haul up something and comes from ‘Haul yards’)
or sheets.
The mast blank had to be positioned below the bridgedeck and stuck out past the front fence. This provided protection
from the elements and allowed work to be done at ground level (on a chair too).
Looking back, planning is crucial and the equipment
needed for the mast had to be purchased and available during the build process. This included the radar, decision on television aerial,
radio (VHF) types of sails to be used, nav lights etc. We had to our advantage, two friends who fad built a few masts in their time.
It appears to be one of those things that when done once, can be easily done again with the new found experience.
All the cutouts were marked using masking tape in an effort to help keep the mast-blank clean from marks and scratches. This worked
very well. After double checking all positions, the rather noisy cutting began in earnest. The router and some good files proved handy
and having friends with experience here, expedited the process.
Given that two different metal surfaces are used with the components (aluminium and stainless steel, additional precautions had to
be taken. There are various compounds on the market and ours proved invaluable. Under the winches, we also used a quality strengthened
tape.