The Mast Step Chronicles

Nearly four years' time, an early mis-reading and misunderstanding of the details of the aluminum mast/hardwood plug design, three different sail-plan drawings, at least three instances of not understanding what the drawings showed me, a misunderstanding of the birdsmouth/plug/tenon design details, a failure to recognize the differences between to two mast designs AND huge doses of impatience resulted in my building of four different main mast steps (so far).

From the left:

• Original (circa mid-2012) mast step for the gaff-yawl rig with too large a mortise for the intended birsdsmouth mast
• First iteration of mast step (circa May 2013) for 105sf main balance lug yawl rig with too large a mortise for the intended birdsmouth mast
• Mast step for the 147sf main balance lug yawl rig (circa April 2015) with correct mortise for my mast
• Latest (last?) iteration of the 105sf main balance lug yawl rig - with mortise to be cut

My Mom had an expression that aptly describes how this all happened: What you don't have in your head, you have to have in your feet.