Raising the Mast

In our previous installment, I bored a lot of you to death with a windy essay on "plan drift".  You can wake up now.  Anyway a couple pix to detail what I did with the mast and how the stock installation should look.   First, where things stand pretty much right now.

 Well it looks spartan and in a fashion it is.  Since I didn't get the forward thwart to fit as tight as it ought, I will probably remake the part.  Also wound up splitting one of the upper rails.  Still it'll work for now.   That's is not the mast, just some lumber mocked up for a mass for checking vertical.

So, what's going on here?  The stock Teal design uses the thwart as the mast step and a small box with a square hole for the mast partner.  It's designed to go in one place and is meant for the stock sail rig, such as this:

This shows a pretty stock Teal, the handling of the mast step has been handled very nicely (though I notice that's not a spirit rig....).   This picture was liberated from http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/06/gatherings/scuzbums/index.htm  This is  Duckworks magazine blog, which is part of the rest of their site, and store  http://www.duckworksbbs.com/hardware.htm--which is where my epoxy, rope and glass are coming from, so I hope they don't mind this liberty.

The reason I built mine different was because I knew I was going to have decked bow and stern (those glued in frames).  I figured that the mast step rails could go forward and help secure a bowsprit (were I to go the jib route), so could be finished as brightwork, with room for stowing stuff below.  Since I had assembly issues with the first go round, the whole works (not the mast partner though) will be replaced with items of a better fit and finish (matching wood if going the brightwork route).  A couple blocks bridging the rails will retain the mast and partner.  Actually a more complicated than the original design, but now any rig could be hung on the boat (well pert near).  

Oh, and the mast too.  Getting back to the build, it started out as four 1 x 3's from Home Depot (who had 1 x 3s, for the person without the table saw).  Dig out the clamps and Titebond II and away we go.....  The mast is a three plank lamination that comes out to a 10' 8" mast.  The first two planks were held together with screws, but the third plank lamination had to be held with clamps and weights..It would be practical to do this part on a nice chunk of concrete or driveway, so as to avoid any bow in the finished product (I seem to have a 1/2" bend over the length of the mast

A few clamps and a lot of lead (I'm a letterpress printer with a Linotype, so finding weights is not a problem).

 So now I have a 2 1/4" stick.  Don't need all that wood, honestly, and who doesn't like a round mast?  So, a little creative cutting with the circular saw to rough off the corners and back to work with the hand plane--a couple hours later yields results.

If you look at the pencil, you can see the curvature--if all else fails, this will make one hell of a spar for somebody.

The finished product, though the top of the mast needs a finish trim.  The mast has an oval cross section, with the laminate layers running fore and aft.

So here it is, suppose it should be a bit more dashing at this point, but it's pretty boatlike so far.

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Before Raising the Mast

Remember plan drift?  It works by accident, and can happen by design. 

So why would a person steer away from a perfectly good plan offered up by a designer that will yield a perfectly usable boat?   I mean, it would seem that by now there ought to be a boat for every conceivable taste and desire, from racing to puddle jumping.   I mean, it's as easy as jumping on the Internet and looking, right?

Well, finding a boat design on the Internet is kind of like buying a car, unseen, off of Ebay--especially if it's a model you've never owned before.    Now, how did I even pick a Teal?  Well the original idea was to build a Harley 8 (think cheap sailing experience).  My friend James said that, "No, you won't be happy with that".   Now, of course during his build of his Harley 8, the Teal kept popping up as a "neat" boat.  Still James wanted something bigger (he's going to build Michalak's Mayfly 14) because he wants to carry two people in the boat.   The Teal looked really appealing, and before l knew it, here I am.   Not building a cheap boat either; phooey!

Now, is the Teal THE boat for me?  Well, probably not, but since this whole exercise was not born of my "wanting" a boat, it's more a matter of grabbing the most available plan vessel and going for it.   But, that is NOT recommended if you're WANTING a boat.

So, back to the mast.   Why on earth would I not follow Bolger/Payson's perfectly sensible spirit rig?   I honestly can't say, but the spirit rig didn't look too user friendly and lacked one vital element that somebody else suggested I have--the ability to reef the sail or otherwise depower the rig (short of dropping sail and rowing).   Also, a 16 (ok, 15'8" and some) foot mast?  Egad, that's a lot of mast way up there or on top of my car.  Still, it fits the Bolger imperative in many of his "instant" boats of "simple, simple, simple", as in instant, not espresso.

Since I am effectively a newbie, I also didn't want to have too much sail and the attendant hazard of dumping the boat and then trying to recover it.   However, in the future, I might.   That's the point where they say you should build another boat, but why not make the current boat more flexible so I can change things about?  The most changeable thing on a sailboat is the sail rig, and changing that moves the sail's center of effort, which either means moving the leeboard/daggerboard, or moving the mast.   Well, easier to build a multi-position mast step than a multi-position leeboard, which would be a lot easier than a multi-position daggerboard or centerboard (though it's probably been done).

Well that's my story and I sticking to it.  The initial sail rig will be a balanced lug.   It's also a simple rig, though probably not a as simple as a spirit, since the lug requires some extra setup and tensioning to work right.  However it runs on a lot shorter mast and is a lot simpler to cut out (yes, the good ol' blue poly tarp special).
Eventually I might try the gaff with jib that the Annas Discorse has, simply because it looks a lot more "boaty", but it may be a poorer performer.  Might not even get that far, but I will get this boat built--otherwise I'd have an interesting half built thing in the backyard.  Besides, I've already ordered the epoxy (ouch!) and it's on it's way as I write.

Next time I'll put up pictures of what I did (on the mast step) and let others rate my wisdom on that.  Still, it's my boat and if it all comes out wrong (or right) it's going to be my problem or success.  Your mileage will certainly vary.