Tuesday, October 8, 2019

Fixing Warts; Trailer Mods

When I installed the cockpit coamings, I was more than a bit careless with my epoxy work. The warts didn't seem to bother others, but they bothered me.

I expected the clean-up job to be difficult and tiresome. Much to my surprise, the warts disappeared after only a few minutes with a sander! A bit more sanding and the coamings will be ready to repaint.

Gardens' mizzen mast is solid wood and, despite being 5' shorter, weighs nearly as much as the hollow bird's mouth main mast. The mizzen is awkward and cumbersome to step/unstep. While we haven't ever lost control or dropped the mizzen, I decided, quite a while ago, to build a new lighter, hollow mizzen mast. This is one of my fall/early winter projects.

L.L. Johnson Lumber, in Charlotte, Michigan (less than an hour's drive away), has the material in the length (14') I need. I fussed a bit about how to get 14' lumber home - without paying the $65 delivery fee. A friend offered the use of his utility trailer or I could borrow my sister's utility trailer, but at 8' long, those do not readily transport long bits of lumber. My friend commented that it was too bad Gardens was on her trailer... Well, that got me thinking! I hoisted Gardens off the trailer, pulled the trailer out, set Gardens on the floor of the barn, and set about modifying the trailer to carry lumber. I removed the bunks (which I will be replacing), moved the bunk supports outboard on the trailer, and added a cross member to support one end of the lumber.

I'm driving to Charlotte tomorrow for the mast material and while I'm there I'll pick up enough cherry lumber to build us a new bed frame over the winter.

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