I had a small but heavy spruce mast and spars from an old balance-lug from which the sail had long rotted-away. However, she needed a mizzen-mast of about 9' long and I decided to have a go at making one. I had a couple of 18' lengths of 3/4" by 1 3/4" douglas fir left over from the repairs to the boat and these were cut down and glued together.
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| Three lengths of fir glued together |
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| Taper marked |
These were planed square and then marked with a taper..
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Planed clean
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The mast taper was planed on with the spar still square.
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| Taper planed |
A spar gauge was made up to mark the spar for planing and it then becomes eight-sided.
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| Spar gauge - two pencils and guide pegs |
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| Marking the spar |
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| Corners planed off to the marks - now its eight-sided |
The faces were then numbered 1-3-5-7-9-11-13-15 with odd numbers only. This was done to avoid missing one corner whilst turning the eight-sided spar to sixteen..
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| Numbered faces |
Spar planed along its length till it became sixteen-sided. Then re-numbered...
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| Numbered faces 1-16 |
Planed again on every corner till it is now at least 32-sided...
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| Nearly round |
Finally a good deal of sandpapering with a coarse grade produced a smooth, round spar.
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| Finished spar |
Well, not quite; it required the head to be rounded and a sheave cut and a taper and heel cut to suit the step and it was given a few coats of Danish Oil.
Now with the boat in the shed I was able to get on and finally paint her. All the new wood was sanded and primed and a couple of coats of white undercoat applied to the above-floor areas followed by a coat of white gloss. The bilges had previously been painted with grey 'Danboline'.
Seats and thwarts had a coat or two of 'woodskin' over the previous coats of 'Sikkens' - I'm trying this in place of varnish - not so glossy but might be easier to maintain.
The topsides were undercoated and painted with a gloss and the bottom painted red. There was no waterline marked on the boat and I spent a whole day with a tight string, level, square and rule transferring a line to the sides of the boat based on where I think she was floating.
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| Undercoating |
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| Clean glossy white |
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| Thwarts and brightwork treated with 'Woodskin'. |
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| Topsides having two coats |
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| Rubbing strip picked-out in red |
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| Bottom painted - two coats |
Finally she's finished and rolled out of the shed..
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| Floor-boards were given a coat of some non-skid grey |
Final jobs are to complete a rudder, step the masts and make some sails...
