First the masthead. What has happened is the old cables to the masthead light and wind unit from when the mast was built ran internally up until the last metre or so of the mast, which was solid, so they brought the cables out then routed channels in the wood up to the top and glued pieces over . Unfortunately at some point those cables were cut off and sealed over with some silicone or such, which failed and has let water seep in down the channels internally. Basically she started going soft from the inside out, until she gave way. The top meter or so of the mast was basically unsalvageable.
On top of this, there are several clusters of tie-rods that run through the mast track all the way through the mast and are fastened on the exterior front face, basically to really tie the track to the mast. Unfortunately in the upper section where the rod comes through the front of the mast it was run through the glue line. A bit of load pulling in on the glue line, over time it opens up a bit, and now we have soft wood around the bolts.
The decision was made to router out the front face all the way down to the upper spreaders and glue in a new section. This removed any dodgy wood from the glue line and also means the through-bolts will now be pulling on clean wood, not seams.
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| Note the old channels for the cables, now dug out. Mushy. |
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| You can clearly see how the masthead has crushed down under load. Good thing I spotted this when I did.... |
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| Lots of setup - the table and guide for routing out the front face. |
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| The routed front face. |
The top metre and a half, or so, of the mast was then removed and a whole new masthead laminated up. Unfortunately it's not just a case of whack a new top on the mast; sections have to be scarfed in at a minimum 12:1 ratio, so this meant scarfing in again almost all the way down to the upper spreaders.
The results are impressive. And expensive. Sigh. But I have to do things right.
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| Laminating the new masthead. Note the long sections for scarfing to the mast. |
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| Test fitting the new section. Existing mast has been tapered to a point. |
It's now all glued on and largely shaped, but unfortunately I don't have any pictures right now.
Now the crappy bit: New Zealand has gone into full lock-down due to Covid-19. As of tomorrow all work has to stop for a month. F**k.
The guys have worked their nuts off today to get the wood sealed up so it can sit now until we are able to start work again. Whenever that may be. More sighs.
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| Masthead not quite finished, but she has to be sealed up. |
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| Hardware being test fitted and used to shape the fibreglass cap. We are putting a fibreglass cap over the top to really seal it and help spread loads. |
We are only a few days away from being able to start varnishing her up etc, but now that is a long way away. In the mean time I have stripped the spreaders down and re-varnished/painted them, painted up the spreader butt blocks, got the hardware electropolished, etc.
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| Fresh varnish. |
So, I guess an update in about a month's time...
