Well, better late then never…
I launched her this afternoon, and will MOTOR to Martha’s Vineyard (140 miles) where I’ll haul her back out and store her for the winter.
At least she didn’t leak too bad…
A few pics can be seen here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/BenEriksen/HauledOutInDanvers#
PART II:
Shameless self promotion…
Elizabeth goes to Martha’s Vineyard:
http://bccelizabeth.com/2008/10/30/beating-the-gale-to-marthas-vineyard/
Ahoy Ben , did you look up inside Elizabeth’s mast, to see if that mast had doublers or double wall , at the partners area , as BCC Little Wing , found on their Forespar mast ?
I would like to know if other BCC’s had a 36" long , “double wall”, installed by Forespar, at the partners area, and of course, just how that internal sleeve was afixed , there-in !
If anyone has information on this subject , please reply .
Also , on BCC Calliste, there were Honduras Mahogony wooden wedges, used at the partners. According to Nigel Calder’s book , they should have been rubber wedges !
Any advice on partners area , would be welcome .
Douglas
Douglas:
I used pine wedges. Pine is soft and will give somewhat if loaded. Hard rubber wedges would be great but I have no idea how to cut them without freezing the rubber with a liquid coolant such as as an alcohol dry ice slurry.
I assume when you wrote 36’ long mast you were referring to the P-measurement. IDUNA’s mast was made by Pacific Spars, Canada. It is 45’ from one end to the other and rather stoutly built. The front of the mast is over a 1/4" thick. I do not believe it has a doubler at the mast partner.
Cheers,
Rod
Hmm, Douglas, nope forgot to take a look inside the mast for you… Wont be back aboard for another week or so. As far as I know rubber is the preferred wedge material.
Ben:
I enjoyed your log of your passage to Vineyard Sound. You write well and the boat looks great on the inside, especially your lovely shipmate for the passage. I spotted your boat in Yineyard Sound. Its’ the one in line with the pilings and between the two gulls on the pilings.
Based on your story and others, you are quite the seadog.
Congratulations,
Rod
BCC IDUNA
Regarding the wedges. On a wooden mast, soft wooden wedges are preferred. The common material was spruce. This is the old traditional way to support the mast at the deck. At SLM we used rubber on all our masts that we commissioned. We bought a sheet of thick rubber (1/4 to 3/8"). We cut this sheet into 2" wide strips. After the mast was properly adjusted and all the rigging was set taught, we installed the rubber. The first piece was wrapped around the mast like an “O” ring. The rest of the strips were cut into 1" and 2" wide pieces. We would fit as many as we could between this “rubber O ring” and the mast collar. These were pushed in my forcing the mast to one side with your foot and shoving the rubber piece where there was space. Then the other side was done, etc. After there was as much rubber in as possible, we covered the whole thing with a rubber polysulfide caulking or equivalent. This method not only supports the mast but it prevents the mast from ever leaking. We did install the mast boot only as a cosmetic nautical cover.
Note: There has to be something inside the boat to prevent the rubber from falling through. We always installed the teak mast collar first.
Note: Depending on the firmness of the rubber, sometime just forcing the mast over with your foot was not enough. When necessary we would run a rope around the mast to the upper or lower shrouds and twist this double rope with a short stick. (poor mans winch or something like that). We never used a lot of twists because we did not want the rubber too firmly packed or too much stress put on the rigging. The end results is that the mast is held firmly in place.
Roger
Roger
Roger:
An interesting approach to installing mast wedges. I would like your opinion on the following idea for mast wedges. Why not cut traditional mast wedges from wood but make them about 1/4" thinner than the opening between the mast and mast partner. Rubber of 1/8" thickness and 70 durometer could then be glued to each side of the wood wedges with an industrial superglue. These could then be used a mast wedges.
Has anyone used the product Spartight to fill the void between the mast and its partner? I am reluctant to use the product because I have seen more problems with boat yards pulling a mast that has Spartight installed between the mast and its partner. In most cases I have observed, the Spartight does not release from the mast partner, hence it has to be cut out, sometimes resulting in damage.
Rod
Rod:
I’ve used Spartite on my BCC for the last 7 years. Only one horror story. First time I used it, I didn’t notice that there was a lip on the inside of the mast partner at the top…about a 0.10" return…as you would expect, when I tried to pull the mast the next fall, we about lifted the boat out of the water. Had to sawsall it out and did harm the mast a bit.
Since grinding off that return, I have had no problems and pull the mast every fall back here in the Great Lakes. The trick is to Vaseline the partner when you first build the plug (it is in the instructions) and to re-grease it every time the mast is pulled and re-installed. Mast re-sets nicely with the plug in place every time.
You do have to caulk where the mast and plug meet on top of the plug to assure a complete water seal (also in the Spartite instructions). I also run duct tape around the joint between the mast partner and the plug. We have no leaks and the mast doesn’t work at all in the partner.
TomDouglas
Shaula, BCC 59, 1981, has a hard white rubber, formed piece, instead of wedges. I believe that it is a Forespar product and fits between the Forespar mast and Forespar deck collar. We’ve removed and reinstalled the mast 3 times in the 27 yrs, and reused the rubber piece with no problems. It was originally 2 pieces that jammed together, but the smaller top piece didn’t seem necessary and wasn’t used. I don’t know if it’s still available from Forespar. Roger’s method is probably just as good (or better?) and cheaper. I don’t know anything about Spartite, but it sounds like it does the job.
To waterproof it, I’ve used heavy black rubber gasket material, cut to shape and tied on and sealed on with a sealant (silicone the last time). We put a sunbrella cover over it to keep UV off the rubber and sealant (fastened with drawstrings and velcro), as well as for cosmetics.
I wonder if you could ask Forespar whether your mast has the doubling piece at deck level? I’ve never noticed on ours. Forespar stamped a serial number on the mast at the gooseneck.
Dan
Douglas
Shaula, BCC 59, 1981, has a hard white rubber, formed piece, instead of wedges. I believe that it is a Forespar product and fits between the Forespar mast and Forespar deck collar. We’ve removed and reinstalled the mast 3 times in the 27 yrs, and reused the rubber piece with no problems. It was originally 2 pieces that jammed together, but the smaller top piece didn’t seem necessary and wasn’t used. I don’t know if it’s still available from Forespar. Roger’s method is probably just as good (or better?) and cheaper. I don’t know anything about Spartite, but it sounds like it does the job.
To waterproof it, I’ve used heavy black rubber gasket material, cut to shape and tied on and sealed on with a sealant (silicone the last time). We put a sunbrella cover over it to keep UV off the rubber and sealant (fastened with drawstrings and velcro), as well as for cosmetics.
I wonder if you could ask Forespar whether your mast has the doubling piece at deck level? I’ve never noticed on ours. Forespar stamped a serial number on the mast at the gooseneck.
Dan
Rod, I think your idea is good, however,the problem with wooden wedges is “wood” does not have memory. The wood will compress in time and lose its effectiveness.
Spartight is an excellent product but it is expensive and it is difficult to remove the mast. However, it will not leak…
Roger
Hi to all,
Spartight is a great product. When you do the initial pour be sure you really dam the underside to avoid leaks of the liquid Spartight.
Bob & Lois
BCC Jolie Brise