New Mast Stepped At Last

30 May 2008

The boat builder needed to use their hydraulic crimping machine located at another boat yard where the crane would be used to step the mast. Crane lifting was created by two rings screwed onto two keel-bolts (most rearward and next forward, through a hole that was cut in the deck today, after the cabin top the garage was removed. The test lift was fine so all is ready.

20 June 2008

Finally the day has come for the mast to go into the hull. To this end the yacht finally re-entered the water to motor around to the other boat yard. The lifting system worked fine but needs to be improved for safety. The refurbished motor, after all this time since it was last worked on (only on the hardstand) refused to turn over so it was towed around and the diesel mechanic called – starter switch fault and after a bit of coaxing of the motor, that hadn't really run for over six months, the diesel was running again and left running while the mast was stepped and final swaging of the cables done using the 10 Ton hydraulic swager.

The mast was attached to the travel lift and raised for lowering into the hull. It finally settling into place just as hoped-for. The cast mast base sits astride an inverted “T” step bolted to the new strengthened base, that will allow increased or decreased mast rake and the collar fitted beautifully with the rope packing and silicon sealant in the small gap at the top, it looks quite neat. With the upper and lower side-stays, front and back stays all in place, it finally looks like a yacht again.

All my calculations and measurements that I provided to the mast builder were finally proven to be correct and the mast with its raked side-stays had just the right angle. We have set it up with originally about 300 mm rake on the mast, but we will have the sail it to find out where the rate should be set. At the moment we can just guess!

With the motors still running, the guys chuffed our yacht back around to Royals Yacht Club, where it was finally lifted back onto its cradle. This is a big relief as it was the first time that the motor had been used to actually push the boat since we had bought it. After a couple of hours running, the vibrations had decreased but with a single cylinder diesel it still vibrates quite considerably. However, all the black smoke had gone and the throttle responded as expected and there was no overheating.

Finally it looked and felt like something had been done on the boat, now that it had mast and I knew the motor was running. Still need to put a new key switch in, but I hey, it runs.