Spars and Main Mast Step

The spars are beginning to pile up while waiting for varnish. The Mizzen Boom, Main Boom and Main Yard are pretty much ready for varnishing. Milling and assembly of the Mizzen and Main Masts will wait until I get a new router table with router lift up and running.

The Main Yard has been tapered, its edges rounded over and the whole spar has been sanded. It weighs 7lbs (3.17kg). This is heavier than the hollow-box yard I built for Karen Ann, but this yard is, much to my surprise, stiffer. Supported at its ends, the yard deflected 16mm when 22lbs (10kg) of weight was hung from the spar's mid-point. Karen Ann's yard deflected 28mm. The difference between my gut reaction (thinking the new yard would not be stiff enough) and the data (suggesting is is) probably explains why I'm not a boat designer...

Other items being worked on:

I am building a hollow-box square cross-section blank for another new yard. This blank will be shaped to a rounded cross-section. Another yard isn't strictly necessary but there is a degree of experimentation going on in the GIS community so, while I'm at it, I'm building an extra yard for comparing different designs and techniques.

Main Mast Step: The other day I began assembling the main mast step. The photos and my description probably did little to illustrate what I was doing. Here is a photo of the mast step blank all glued up and trimmed to rough shape.


The step still needs sanding and shaping before being coated with epoxy and varnished.