Hi David,

Thanks for taking the time to respond. I have a stainless tube glued to Douglas fir blocks which are glued to the aluminum mast.

I am concerned that enough heat to remove the assembly will also ruin the stainless to fir bond. I am using west system epoxy.

Hmmm. Not sure what to do next. I will consider melting it off and starting over. 

Hi Annie,

Thank you for the encouragement. It is a big help. The more I work on my project the more I am amazed at how your boat is really a work of art.

I think I did things too quickly these last few days. I have a hinge glued to my mast now. Unfortunately it ended up 1.5 inches too high up. I built it the way it is in my drawing but I think I measured one thing and then made a drawing of something else.

I need to remove this hinge that is really securely glued to the mast, or cut off the bottom of the mast or add something to the top of the tabernacle. All these seem I like bad options.

Does anyone have a better idea how to fix this? 

And 3/8" stainless steel (18-8) threaded rod dry fit to holes drilled in the tabernacle.

I have been thinking about posting an update for a few days. I am concerned that this may read like whining and complaining. So I am going to try to focus on things that I have made me feel thankful recently.

I feel fortunate that I was able to get one of the four mooring balls at the new marina. They are much less expensive than a slip and a good excuse to have two boats. The Sun Dolphin Water Tender is fun to row around. Unfortunately the marina has a use it or lose it sort of policy. If I don't keep a boat on the ball I lose the spot and the next person gets it -- even after I pay for a season. I think this is good rule overall but for me right now it means I have a sailboat with no rig. I took the original rig off before launching.

I would also like to thank whoever designed my Tohatsu Sailpro engine. The shift linkage pulls up on the lower unit to shift into forward gear. Turns out the shift linkage is strong enough to hold the lower unit up and in gear. This was important when somehow I ended up in the middle of the harbor with both of the bolts that should be holding the lower unit missing. Last time those bolts were intentionally removed waswhen I had a marine service company replace the impeller two years ago.

I am thankful that I am using slow epoxy hardener. The local West Marine was out of resin so I ordered it online. The 'can' arrived with a big dent in the side. This seemed to be only a cosmetic problem until I was pumping out the second batch of epoxy for the bi-axial cloth. The bent angle of the top of the can seemed to put some strange stress on the mini pump. The center of the pump pushed through the part that screws on the can and the pump came apart in two pieces. One part was left floating in the can and the other on the floor of the garage. So it was good that the slow hardener gave me some time to throw out the mess, fix the pump and carefully measure a new pot.

Lastly I am thankful that I do not have to rely on my skills with fiberglass to earn a living. I need to decide if the voids left under the bi-axial cloth need to be cut out and filled back in properly and consider getting a surgeon to remove the glass fiber that is now epoxied into my thumb.

Still sounds like complaining, I think. But I am happy to be making progress.

Scott.

David T: “The tops of these tapered tubes are generally parallel for a short distance, to enable the lamp-post makers to fit the light more easily, so in fact, getting a good fit for a short extension is no problem.”

That is good news and negates some (though perhaps not all) of the reasons for suggesting that a larger diameter heel plug extension might be better or easier to make than a small diameter topmast extension.

I sure wish we could get these lamp posts in New Zealand.