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Mast:  Awlgrip (Page 3)
This page was last updated on 1 May 2005.

<-Return to Page 2 and Final Success

With the painting finally behind me, I turned my attention to reinstalling the mast hardware that I had removed oh so many months before.  This included the masthead sheave, rigging tangs, spreader and jumper strut bases, headstay and halyard tangs, and all the cleats and winches at the lower end of the mast.  In addition, I could now locate and install the new fixed gooseneck, a project begun last season.

Over the period of two sunny afternoons, I completed all the various installations.  To isolate the hardware from the painted mast, and to hopefully stem any corrosion or paint bubbling that might occur (as is common with painted spars), I coated the back of each piece of hardware with a thin layer of polysulfide sealant, and also put some sealant in the fastener holes.

Most of the reinstallation went quickly, as I was simply reusing old holes that I had lfet from before.  In some cases, though--particularly the winches--I had to relocate the hardware and drill and tap new holes for fasteners, since I had decided to abandon an old aluminum, through-bolted winch base plate that I had used previously.

I also installed some new hardware for a set of lazy jacks that I planned to install when some newly-ordered hardware arrived.  Click here for more on the lazy jacks.


To remount the main halyard winch, I first cut out a circle of mahogany about the same diameter as the winch base.  Then, I stuck some 40-grit discs on the spar, and rubbed the block back and forth over the sandpaper to sand the bottom into a profile that exactly matched the spar's shape.  This took a surprisingly long time, perhaps because the particular piece of mahogany that I used was very dense and hard. 

With that done, I drilled 1/4" holes through the wood at each winch base fastener location, and then, with the wooden base on the mast in the correct location, drilled and tapped the mast for some 1/4-20 machine screws.  When all the holes were tapped, I installed the winch permanently.


I repeated the process for a new winch on the other side of the mast, for the jib halyard.  For years, I had planned to install a jib halyard winch, but never got around to it; it just wasn't that important.  With a small Barlow winch left over from the old boom (I had replaced the reefing winch with a nicer Lewmar version), I decided to mount it on the mast.  The winch had come with a curved backing block that required only minimal sanding to make it fit the mast, so I reused the old block, rather than try to laboriously sand down a new one.

Mast painting complete!  Sorry, I see I didn't take that many pictures of this process...pretty boring, I guess!

  


Glissando, Pearson  Triton #381
www.triton381.com 

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