Fitting lodging knees

The small rig that is planned for Nanw uses an 11ft long unstayed mast and as mentioned below it seemed a good idea to put some more strength into the fore part of the boat. To do this I have made some lodging knees to brace the forward thwart to the sides of the boat.
After being shaped round these were glued and screwed with 14G x 4" screws to the thwart which is 1 1/8" thick and nail and rove fastened through the adjacent frames.

Forward thwart braced with lodging knees

Fitting a mast step and making knees

I have a plan to fit Nanw with a simple standing lugsail and mizzen.  I have a set of ancient spars that were possibly from a boat my father had as boy in Devon. Dad is 87 now so it gives an idea of their age! The mast is spruce and has a gentle taper as have the boom and yard.
The mast needs to be unstayed so I needed to build some more strength into the forward thwart and make a step for the mast.
First job was to make some lodging knees to fit between the hull side and the thwart to brace it and stiffen her up. In the absence of proper grown crooks I glued up some iroko with a big half-joint to make a pair of blanks:

Knee 'blank' made for lodging knee - this is the starboard one.

The knees were marked and cut to fit closely into planking and frames and will be through-fastened to the hull and glued and screwed to the thwart.

Making the port lodging knee fit.

Next job was a mast step.  I made a 'floor' to fit closely to the hull just aft of the stem knee and built up some hardwood to form a mast step. This will be screw fastened to the existing structure and glued and nailed together and through-fastened.

Mast step tied to new floor and standing on stem knee and hog.

The forward thwart was bored through using a convenient hole saw and the mast was trial-stepped. After checking it was upright and the rake was okay I have marked the step for the heel mortice.

Trial stepping the mast - position for step mortice located

Nanw's mast stepped at last!