Pool noodles! I love the idea and will try it.  As an added bonus, I am a school principal most of the time and we have a swimming pool, so I am sure I can get hold of some that need replacing, without having to pay a penny.

Hi David.  

Shoulder!  I knew rebate was not the right word even as I was typing it.  I suspect that the final decision on hollowing the mast will come down to time, more than anything else. I am determined to get the boat working and afloat before the end of the season, even if there is not much below decks. And it has been a couple of years since I last made it home to the UK, so much of my summer leave will be spent there.  I currently have no hardware above the waterline, which is exciting as the decks look so clean, but glassing, painting and then fitting or refitting everything needed will also take some time. We will see how the weather is in spring.

Thank you for the warning about the lower end of the topmast as well. The wiring was one of the considerations that was bothering me - the same shoulder means a fairly deep groove for the wiring. I know that in principle it should not weaken the mast with a proper spline on top of the conduit, but...

Best regards,

Mark

I have added a diagram of the rig with a three degree forward rake, which looks like it should work, although I have also drawn a four degree version.  I also like the appearance of a forward rake – it gives a jaunty air.  I have left the luff and leech vertical for calculation/drawing purposes.  I assume this is right, based simply on the fact that the boom looked more ridiculous than jaunty with another three degrees of slope!

As for hollowing out the topmast, I have also been chatting with the gentleman who helped me last summer.  He set up a cunning contraption with the mast on small wheels and a router in a fixed framework so we could cut the rebate for where it will slot into the lower section.  We both reckon that with a supporting frame forming a table, we should be able to start a cut with a circular saw and finish it with a handsaw.  However, he went further and suggested cutting the mast into quarters and using a circular saw to cut off the excess from the centre on the same framework, leaving us with a square hole in the centre and a round exterior.  Not sure I have explained very well, but it matches some of the pictures in PJR so seems like a possibility, although I still find the thought of the whole thing rather daunting.  Any thoughts?

Lastly, I spent hours yesterday morning trying to get the forehatch out.  The temperature (-3) beat me before I succeeded completely, but it is coming!  For the partners, I am thinking a pad of 18mm ply beneath the forehatch with an overlap of about six centimeters (taking it right up to the main bulkhead), pads to fill in the moulded forehatch hole, and 12mm on top, overlapping only the raised edges of the hatch aperture.  This gives a total thickness of just over six cm – comfortable achieving PJR’s recommendations of a minimum of 25% of the diameter of the mast.  I will have to make some softwood pieces to take up the curve of the deck inside, but overall this seems like a solution that is not too labour intensive, strong enough and should be reasonably neat!  Again, any thoughts before I start cutting up ply, a tempting job at the moment as I can do it in the workshop in front of the fan heater!

Many thanks in advance for any feedback, suggestions, or letting me know if my thinking is totally off!

Happy weekend from snowy, but warming, Norway.

Mark

Mark Case wrote:

After taking the rig out of my old IW31 for putting into a Maxi 95, I found myself overwhelmed with enthusiasm for a total renovation of the Maxi, rather than the simple rig replacement I had envisaged.  However, even with part time professional help it has taken a lot of time and, with a house (and boat) move factored in, I found myself wondering at New Year if I would actually get to sail this year.  So I am determined to prioritise the jobs needed to get a basically fitted out boat afloat this year, and so far as the rig is concerned, that means getting the partners in place ASAP, so we are ready to paint the decks and fit or refit hardware as soon as the weather improves.

Hi Mark - I had no idea what an IW31 was, but having Googled it discovered an image of one with junk rig, Kari II, which I assume is the one that you had.  I'm surprised you didn't sell it with the rig!   

I had always figured (though only on the basis of 'it looks about right') that the mast would go in the V of the V berth, sitting in a fabricated step that bolted through to the network of the inner moulding with suitable reinforcement. Having spent the last cold of weeks messing about with photocopies of the hull and rig, and looking more carefully at where I am thinking of cutting the holes, I have found:

As you say, usually, the mast goes through the V of the V-berth, which was the logical place on Fantail, too.

1. The hole in the deck would be worryingly close (less then ten centimetres) to the hole for the fore hatch, and I am unsure about the strength of that.
2. The CE of the junk rig would be forward of the CE of the bermudan rig (though only slightly)

I could move the mast forward a few centimetres, but, apart from requiring a lot of destruction of the inner moulding, the IW31 also had the mast well forward and I needed to winch the THP right in tight to reduce the balance enough to reduce lee helm, rather reducing the advantage of the low-stress rig.  I would rather have a balance level that sits a bit more comfortably, so am loth to move the mast too far forward.

So I am wondering about moving the mast back like in this rough image. The purple arrow shows my original idea, but in this version the mast would go through the fore hatch, and I am considering a couple of degrees of forward rake with a step tied into the main bulkhead.  With the balance as drawn at about ten percent, it gives a lead of about 11% of waterline.  On paper, it looks like it should work, but the CE is further aft than the original and I am worried about weather helm.  Does anyone have any experience with the bermudan Maxi 95, or any thoughts on the matter in general? I find myself going back and forwards several times a day as to what the best solution may be.

Did you work out all the centres for the IW31?  It seems odd that she would have had so much lee helm.  On Fantail, I wanted the mast in a different place because of accommodation issues, and by putting it well raked, could keep the CE where I wanted it, without putting the mast through the bunk.  While I think it's obviously best to try to get the CE and the lead correct, junk rig seems pretty forgiving.  Arne found himself unhappy with Ingeborg's new rig and shifted the whole sail forward on the mast, quite transforming her, so you could experiment once the sail is bent on, to get everything just so. If you are worried that the CE is too far aft, would putting more balance on the sail plan help?  It seems that (as is often the case) the fore hatch is just where you don't want it.  But I suppose with an inner lining, you are pretty loth to move that, too.  And as you have the rig, you won't want to consider split junk.  I suggest you try a bit more forward rake and see how that goes, but I'm sure Arne, or David will be able to give a more detailed analysis.

Additionally, I have cut the pole mast from the IW down to 7.5 metres and notched the end ready to pop into an alloy tube for a hybrid mast.  But I am having second thoughts about that, too.  I guess that from an engineering point of view, it should be plenty strong enough, but I am worried about high weight, and that I am putting a weak joint in the mast in exactly the wrong place.  I have been searching through these forums for all of the options and am starting to make a list of companies to talk to, but before I do that, do any of our Norwegian members have any alternative suggestions in the Norwegian market?

The matter of weight aloft is overstated.  If you think of the average bermudian rig with its heavy mast cap and the gear aloft for a roller furling headsail, to say nothing of wires, tangs, etc, the weight of a bare pole is not a serious consideration.  Too light a mast, and the boat will have a violent motion.  Why not cut the pole in two, hollow it out and glue it back together, if you're seriously concerned?  If you give the topmast plenty of 'bury', the joint should be perfectly adequate.  Tystie sailed for thousands of miles, in all sorts of weather, with a hybrid mast.