Mast up for first time

After bedding and securing the chainplate bolts a couple of days ago, we bought Kismet home for the day of reckoning. Will the shrouds be the right length to stop the mast colliding with the rear of the cabin?

All good. Even the forestay was within adjustable range.

I had to add 30mm of padding under the front mast rooftop mount (for road travel).

I also raised the rear 'V' mount 50mm so that the spreaders cleared the cabin hatches.

You can see the old holes on the lower 'V' mount. The top 'V' mount "unplugs" from the mast support at the orange paint just above the lower 'V'. This reduces our travelling height so we don't take out any service station lights.

Unfortunately I picked a bad weekend to bring the boat home as my storage place isn't open tomorrow and we are too committed to other stuff to actually try to get sailing. I also need to mount the jib blocks and cleats and make a new tiller.

So there it sits in the driveway. I'm not allowed to put on the front lawn again.

I'm currently waiting for William to get home from work (yes on a Sunday) so we can lower the mast and store it on the boat. Since it's the first time we have ever lowered it, I'm not taking any chances that my better half could get injured lowering the mast. (I'm not sure how much he helped me when raising it...).

Chainplates done - Tacktrack repairs & bedding

The Chainplate woodwork is complete and we have successfully drilled the 6mm holes for the bolts. I have to patch-paint the outside of the hull were the old holes were then we are ready to bolt them up. I'm very happy with the result - although it looks a bit messy on the inside.

The top of the elongated holes on the chainplate extensions lines up with the hole in the existing chainplates. The top drilled holes line up with existing and new pieces.

Starboard - I was able to brace across the hull on this one so I could keep it pretty clean of epoxy.

Port - I had to use masking tape and plastic sheet so couldn't see the result until next day. I'll clean it up a bit but it's very solid.

The chainplates are on an angle on the insides of the hulls so the bolts would be under bending strain if bolted up as they are. So I'm also making 12 degree washers so that the nuts can bolt up flush.
I'm using large Stainless Steel washers on a chunk of wood temporarily set on a 12 degree angle with epoxy dribbled into a "mould" made from masking tape. We'll see how that goes.

I'll check them tomorrow.

MAIN TRAVELLER
The main traveller has been re-mounted on a bed of Sika 291 with 10 of 75mm screws, 2 of 89mm screws and 6 of the original 50mm screws (the outside 3 on each side). I didn't epoxy any screws in but they are quite tight and with mostly 50mm penetration into the transom I can't see them letting go.
Sorry no pictures as yet.

TACKTRACK
I deliberated leaving the tacktrack in place and just removing each screw and epoxying them in but finally decided to removed it entirely.
Part of the top of the tacktrack support was slightly cracked and peeled away a chunk when the track was removed. That was bad and good. Bad because I have to repair it, good because it showed that the builder had used at least SOME fibreglass when the upper deck was built.

The tacktrack support with the track removed.

Close up of the worst damage.

The chunk that came off. You can see the woven pattern.

I'll be bedding the tacktrack with Sika 291 and screwing it almost down, then next day I'll remove the screws one at a time and inject epoxy into the hole and quickly re-insert the screw. Quickly because they are not blind holes so the epoxy will dribble through.

I'll have to be quick with this process because the screws have to be nipped down pretty much bit by bit so as to not strip any one screw hole trying to take all the strain. (This wait-until-next-day to tighten is recommended by Sika to prevent the bedding compound being completely squeezed out).