Real work
I’ve had 2 days working with Jim, it’s going great. Here’s the first little project.
What you’re looking at is the mast of a Herreshoff 12 1/2. The light area is a patch we let into the mast to fix a spot where the boom had pulled out of the mast. Turns out that at one point in the past someone has screwed in the boom fitting with 4 small screws angled inwards for strength instead of using long screws. When the boom got really stressed, these screws didn’t just pull out, they now pulled out a chunk of wood since the angling served to essentially pry up a shallow strip of wood. Now why on earth would anyone do that? a) they’re lazy or b) they’re a bonehead or c) both a & b. I opt for c. We routed out a curved groove in the mast and found the remains of the original 4 screws buried deep in the mast. Apparently what happened was that these screws probably broke off as they got old and fatigued a long time back, and the person who tried to replace the boom hit the old screws when driving in the new ones. Rather than extracting the old screws, plugging the holes, and then re-drilling with proper sized screws, they just shot in short screws at an angle. And then it all went to hell and required us to fix it.
Here’s the patch after sanding it smooth. The wood will be lighter than the mast wood, but varnishing should help it blend a little.
I also made tons of spiles (I know, it’s the same word as spiling, but it’s different) which are essentially giant toothpicks to stick into holes. There’s a copper wear plate up near the top of the mast that’s nailed in to protect the mast from the yoke of the upper yard. We had to remove it to check for rot before undertaking the patch… who wants to patch a rotten mast? Only a scurvy dog.
But, if you’re going to be a good boat builder, you anticipate problems and address them now. When we took the copper plate off, we had a ton of nail holes exposed. We could have filled them with epoxy, but that’s not a certain thing, as epoxy often spans the top of the hole without really penetrating. The solution is to fill the holes with spiles (or as we call them at IYRS, donkey toothpicks) soaked in epoxy.
Cut the excess off. Sand everything flush. Coat the exposed end grain of the spiles with epoxy. Sand again. NOW you’ve done it right, and water can’t penetrate into your old nail holes. Furthermore, you’ve now got fresh wood to nail into should you nail the copper plate back on exactly in the old place.
No pictures of the stem project yet, but those will come. I’m heading in tomorrow early, so it’s time to hit the hay.