I wonder if anyone has made a 'mast raising tabernacle for small boats' according to Arne's design in his files.  I have handed the parts to a welder to put it together for me and look forward to seeing how it works.  I wonder whether some temporary 'stays' would help control the mast as it goes up

Anonymous wrote:

Hi. I have starting working on my mast, a 7m tapered aluminium lampost. It had a fairly rough surface finish and I have now got it quite smooth going from 80 grit up to 800.    I am wondering what to paint it with, partly to avoid staining the sail which is white .  I came across something called nyalic, which is a clear resin, somewhere in the technical forum. Has anyone in the UK used this and know where to get it or maybe there are other recommendations. Thanks

I must have missed this bit - where did you source your lamp post?

Hi again.  I hope it's OK to keep checking in for advice along the way.  I am now working on the mast step and partners.  The mast will pass through the old forehatch aperture, which, once I'd marked a centreline on the deck' I found was not in the middle but 2 cm to starboard!  I have ground all around the area back to the matting and fashioned this 'plug' which is a total of 4 layers of 18mm marine ply.  I plan to glass this in outside and inside with 2 layers of biaxial cloth.  One question I have is will that be enough or should I put some stiffeners across from side to side inside the cabin roof to add more strength?

For the mast step I have removed the floor of the locker and then fashioned to layers of ply to lie one on top of the other which I will again glass in to the hull.  The bottom layer will have a hole to drain any water into the bilges and then I have a 1.5m tube of aluminium which I will epoxy into this arrangement the mast will drop into that.

Does my design seem strong enough or do people think a bit more bracing of the hull and deck is needed around these 2 structures?

Anonymous wrote:

That's looking very nice, Jes.  Are you using white, polyester sail cloth?  If so, I assume you realise that you will have to make a sail cover ...

Yes i am. I plan to make a cover.   After sewing the sail itself  making the cover  should be a breeze .  So far a lot of my sailing has been in Scotland so sun won't be a big problem!  I was looking for a lighter cloth to make the sail with but a lot of them seem to have a waterproof or anti UV coating  on one side and not the other and it seems strange to me to have a sail like that though reading through the forums i think others have used such cloth without a problem. 

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The one part of the sewing I don't understand yet though it may become clear is how the lengths of the panels matches up, eg between panel 1 and 2 where the round on panel 1 is half that of panel 2.  Surely that makes the  length of the seam different on the 2 edges?  Any clues as to how this works, maybe the difference isn't that significant, thanks.

I'd give the panels an inch or two of extra length. Irregularities to be trimmed off later.

Sail coming on nicely now, panels 1-3 joined and  managed to trim the luff seam to get a nice straight edge, thanks for the advice on that one.  Lower panels also joined plus webbing and small webbing loops added to head and foot.  Waiting for delivery of more thread!  Pleased with my Singer 237 machine, it is coping with the thickness  of material very well. I've made a seam guide to try and improve on the straightness of my seams.