The Uh, oh? Where'd the mast go? get-home "mainsail" is now done. All the exposed supersticky carpet tape is covered by white duct tape and the grommets are hammered in, in the corners and up the luff. It's rolled up in the car. It will go up in the forepeak and hopefully never get used!
I'm making progress on the Uh, oh? Where'd the mast go? Emergency Mast. As noted before, the mast is in three sections, 6' 4" long, each to make a 19 foot long stick.
These wood plugs, that I hole-drilled out of a scrounged doug fir 2 x 4 last night, are now embedded in the ends of the top and bottom sections of the emergency mast. The plugs are two or three cylinders out of the 2 x 4, glued with PL Premium, and let to dry overnight. You can see the middle section in the back, with twine and a clamp holding the joining sleeve in place while the PL Premium ~Super Glue Stuff" locks it in place. The sleeves are 1 foot long, the same aluminum as the mast section. I cut longitudinal cuts down the sleeves with my table saw, and removed enough material so that I could Spanish windlass the tube closed and get it inside the mast tube. It's set in there with a lot of PL Premium.
The joining sleeves will get 6-8 rivets in them tomorrow, where they're already attached. Then the whole mast gets assembled and lined up for pre-drilled rivet holes to make assembly easy if I have to put the whole thing together at sea.
The wood plugs, in addition to the PL Premium, will get a couple of screws driven into them, to hold them in place. The "Top" one...at the masthead will get holes drilled in them, so I can through-bolt the forestay fitting to the backstay/main halyard sheave fitting. The side pad eyes will be screwed into the wood with 2.5 inch long screws. They'll be offset a little bit so the screws don't find each other inside the mast. They are NOT coming out!
Last edited by AlanH; 09-02-2020 at 09:19 PM.
1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"
As an aside, two of the pieces assembled, instead of three, makes a tube 12' 8" long.... which is for all intents and purposes, exactly the length of my boom.
1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"
The masthead fittings are in, in the upper section of the E-mast. The bottom is drilled and has two screws helping "anchor" that wood plug in the bottom, along with all that PL Premium. half the pop-rivets are in, so the upper sleeve, in the middle section is done. 8 more pop rivets in the bottom sleeve go on tomorrow morning. Then I assemble the whole thing and drill holes for the "hopefully never put in" pop rivets, that would keep the whole thing together if it ever gets deployed. Hopefully the thing will stay in three pieces in the foredeck until I get to Hanalei, and then...somehow....I'll get them home, where they'll become the mast for the Caravelle that AZsailor gave me the plans for.
This morning I sewed the foot tape on the Piper jib, which will be my "get home" jib, and I JUST put the twisty-hanks on the luff of that jib. It's now ready to go.
Last night, I was so amped that I couldn't sleep, so I got up and shaved down the plastic tubing that I use for bushings for the main rudder. I'll put those on tomorrow, after I pick up the liferaft. Oh, and I'll re-install the radar reflector/strobe light pole.
Today I "practiced" sending messages with the InReach. I've managed to set up tracking a few times, and friends can follow my tracks so I think I've got the thing sussed out.
I'm watching the weather, if Tuesday looks good, I'm GOIN' !
1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"
I look forward to watching your voyage, I hope you'll share the tracker with us all.
I have been impressed by your belt-and-suspenders-and-a-spare-sailtie approach. I was wondering if you have a backup for the rudder pintles on the transom? My friend sheared his off on a return from HMB one year coming under the GG bridge and had an adventure in the dark.
Good luck on the prep,
-Mike
You can't imagine the amount of time I've spent worrying about exactly this scenario. If you look back in SHTP history, boats with transom-hung rudders have a dicey history, pintles and rudders have sheared off before. That's why I build a bombproof e-rudder. I do not have a backup to the lower pintle pin, or the lower pintle fitting. It's very tempting to get a piece of 5/8th rod and the appropriate piece of s.s. U-channel. My buddy Len could drill and weld that in about half an hour. Or I could get a 5/8 bolt and thread it onto a piece of heavy aluminum channel. I can do that in my driveway. Hmmm. I might do that, today.
After noticing a very little bit of movement in the cabron/fiberglass wrapping that helps anchor the lower cassette gudgeon to the box, last weekend....I sailed with the e-rudder for about 90 minutes in varying conditions..... I reinforced that area on the box. It's a bit crude and heavy but it's stronger; wood, screws and PL Premium polyurethane.
NOAA Weather, Central California, 10 - 60 miles out.
Sun
NW winds 10 to 15 kt. Wind waves 1 to 2 ft. NW swell 4 to 6 ft at 8 seconds.
Sun Night
NW winds 10 to 15 kt. Wind waves 1 to 2 ft. NW swell 5 to 6 ft at 9 seconds and S around 2 ft at 12 seconds.
Labor Day
NW winds 5 to 15 kt. Wind waves 1 to 2 ft. NW swell 5 to 7 ft and S around 2 ft.
Tue
NW winds 5 to 15 kt. Wind waves 1 to 2 ft. NW swell 5 to 6 ft and S around 2 ft.
================
Time to go!
I'll leave Coyote Point late Saturday afternoon and sail to Treasure Island. I'll overnight at TI, in Clipper Cove and then head out for 400 miles on Sunday.
https://share.garmin.com/WildcatfOfLochAwe
The password is: Hanalei
Last edited by AlanH; 09-04-2020 at 09:47 AM.
1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"
Well, Alan Steel is closed on Fridays, so I went by Home Depot and I have a very half-assed single "pintle" of sorts, that I will be able to deploy if I have to. IT's not much, I wouldn't trust it for long, but it's better than nothing. I'll get the real deal made up before Hawaii.
The Emergency mast is DONE. The liferaft is in the garage. The "away" message is set at work.
The final list is made.
I'm starting to get butterflies.
1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"
oh, now I get it - you made an aluminum caber!
DH