Mast support bracket

I have roughed our a mast support bracket in a piece of my old mahogany table top. It is shaped to hold the boom at any time it is lowered, or to hold the lowered mast centrally without crushing the sail track. The boom and mizzen should stow either side of it in the angled recesses. I need to drill for restraining bungee cords and hooks yet. I will fit a similar shaped support at the tabernacle. All being well it should mean that the rig can be lowered and stowed rapidly. Currently, I can get the mast down in seconds, but it takes a remarkably long time to lash everything securely in place. I hope this arrangement will allow me to do it all in just a couple of minutes. I have lined the bracket with a strip of vinyl flooring, but may change that to something more refined. Soft leather would be ideal but I don't think I have got any.

Boom support "beam" out of the mould

The cross beam is out of the clamps. I am quite pleased for a first lamination. It is very strong. I stood on teh centre and it just flattened out slightly. The angles of the ends don't quite match the angles of the supports on the tops of the stanchions, but it is close and a couple of thin wedges will fit it all into place. There were some gaps along the edge of one joint on the underside. which I couldn't see, but I have worked some extra epoxy into it and it should be fine. A lot of sanding needed before I could run a plane along each edge. I need to sand each wide face smooth as there are a number of epoxy dribbles on them.

Boom and mast support

I have always wanted some form of boom gallows. Partly to speed things up when raising and lowering the mast, and partly to form a basis of a cockpit tent/spray hood extension. I also hate having loose things the lying around in the cockpit or hidden away in the cabin. The boom scissors I have work fine, but they just irritate me. My latest attempt will use two guard rail stainless steel stanchions, secured to the cockpit coaming as far back as they can go and still support the lowered boom. I have fitted two wedges to make the base fittings parallel. (I must confess that I glued one wedge on the wrong way round and had to chisel it off and start all over again.)

Joining the stanchions will be a curved, laminated cross beam, made from four think softwood planks, braced in a curve and glued together. I have never laminated anything like this before.When I first clamped the boards, all of the chocks I had carefully nailed along the curve on the workbench just pulled out. Eventually I screwed them all down to the bench with 4 inch screws. All of the jig is covered in parcel tape and all four layers epoxied together, so hopefully in the morning the bits which should stick together do so, and then bits that shouldn't, don't. I am also thinking of fitting side navigation lights onto the ends of the gallows, which will get them fairly high but keep them out of the way. As always, we shall see.

Oiling wood and boring holes in foam rubber...

I have spent the last week linseed oiling various bits of wood. Firstly, the two doormat pads, which I have now screwed to the side decks. I have found that I can screw them down firmly without the screws penetrating the plywood underneath, so I have left them like that, without any glue underneath. That means they will be easy to remove if necessary (mainly if I decide they look god awful). I have also narrowed my original cockpit table and added two up-stands to the short edges. This means that when it is propped in front of the companionway it forms a comfortable seat with your legs in the cabin, and that it doesn't stop you opening the cockpit locker. It has got the table leg socket screwed to the underside and lives in the cabin when sailing. All pieces have had six coats of linseed oil, which leaves a wonderful colour and surface.

Secondly, I have bored two holes through the width of one of my flat fenders. This means I can thread ropes down through them, so that they hang better and the ropes don't get in the way of them being used as cockpit cushions. I puzzled over how to bore these long holes for some time. In the end I bought a length of 8mm aluminium pipe, filed some grooves in one and and then pushed and twisted it into the foam rubber. That worked quite well, but I quickly discovered I could speed up the process just by whacking the end of the tube with a hammer and blasting it through. Threading the rope was tricky, but I managed to feed it into the tube, and then pull the tube out, leaving the rope in place. I have repositioned the fender cleats so that I don't trip over the ropes and can quickly hang the fenders in place. I need to do the other fender, but my tube is full of foam rubber, so I don't know if it will go through so easily next time.

Wooden "door mats"

One thing that has bothered me for a long time is the damage and mess on the side decks from people's feet (mainly mine). Whether getting in from a dinghy or off a pontoon or off a ladder in the shed, you tend to step on the deck and grind your foot around as you swivel to get on. It  means there is always a dirty patch just by the cabin bulkhead.  I thought of fitting a fake teak deck, but at £500 just for the strips (it's only polyurethane for goodness sake) that was a non-starter.


Then I pondered various ways of fitting timber slats on the side decks. I think that could work, but the edges and back of the deck curve, they are not parallel and there is a large locker lid in one deck. I didn't think I could do a good enough job. So I have plumped for solid wood "door mats", one each side, just by the cabin, where you step in. Their width is determined by the space between the bulkhead and the locker lid. I have made them from edge laminated softwood boards, which I have found is stable and strong even on a boat. I think they look quite good. I will screw them from underneath onto sealant and then use linseed oil to finish the tops and edges.