Anonymous wrote:
Howard,
thanks, useful photos.
i would locate the masts in tabernacles close to the hull side, much as Pete did in Oryx.
ideally without the struts, or at least ones that are to some extent hidden. Like your idea.
anyway may go for a look this weekend, so will have to give it some really serious thought.
Surprisingly a tentative note on the Iroquois page got a couple interested in the mast. One noted that the fore beam corrodes at the ends, and is the same mast section, so if I end up having to cut it up it could come in use or be sold.
Sections of that mast could become your boom perhaps..... It would be nice to simply step the masts on the keel and forget about tabernacles.... That would involve sacrificing some internal hull space, but the further forward you were, the less important that space would be... a juggling act between sail balance area and ideal mast location. Here's a cut away image of the boat and one of the forward berth where the mast would need to go. Not much of a berth, but the berths in general are not much. The bridge deck cabin has a big compression post through the middle...which would no longer be necessary except to support the cabin top...Note in the photo that there is another support strut further outboard suggesting that the cabin top is not particularly strong. With a small strut replacing the big one, and the table top designed to drop, this cold become a decent double berth.
Looking at tabernacles in general, I'm trying to imagine the process of lowering the mast.... Forward or aft? How do you stabilize and control it, how do you lift and lower it, the line angles that work against you as you lower it, becoming increasingly parallel with the mast.... what are you lowering it onto? Where are you winching from? How are you mitigating the parallelism issue? (strut?) What do you do with it when you get it down... and all this with the boat in the water.......... There seems to me to be good reason people use cranes, and you don't see many tabernacles. It's anything but a simple or safe process. The risk of damage or injury is significant and the environment not optimal. I work with very heavy stuff all the time, own a crane and a very large forklift and loader. Even with those I take a lot of time planning what I do so nothing gets damaged or broken and nobody gets hurt.... I usually work alone because it's safer than having lots of enthusiastic help. There's a reason why the rigger is one of the most important men in a crane operation.
H.W.