Building a new boom & selling the old one

[Stephen]

I'm building a new boom:

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid207/p92c14a045d5eabf01fe2a4d15236ac1d/eeb92a36.jpg

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid207/p2d7fcf5bae871ea31c0fe5b073644db3/eeb92a59.jpg

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid207/p15221af7545fe6e183c6c8953e58c690/eeb9314e.jpg

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid207/pd8bcfbe9ff886ff3e9a1670a6c112532/eeb93132.jpg

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid207/p526cdb0a67076e666464b22b0a4f0348/eeb9317b.jpg



And I'm selling the old one. It's 28'6" long, very nice spruce, hollow, rectangle section, with a reccessed aluminum track running the length of the top face. No other fittings on it. It is constructed to high standards and it's in very good condition. It's in the PacNW and I'll take offers on it:
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid207/p17208884445571b432e00131ea42288e/eeb9441d.jpg

[Don Kurylko]

Stephen, what is that knobbly stuff on your sanding drum? Motorcycle tire?

[Dan McCosh]

If you needed a new one, who would want the old one?

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

If you needed a new one, who would want the old one?

Perfectly good boom, but does not suit Stephen's rather distinguished boat, which has an Appledore pattern reefing gear, unless I miss my guess?;)

[Stephen]

That's correct Andrew. The one I'm selling doesn't match the period of the vessel - no aluminum sailtracks in 1899....:) I've been removing stainless fittings and tufnel blocks and such from the boat, and generally trying to bring her closer to her old workboat rig.
I could have kept using the old square boom but when I bought the fir for my new deck the boom stock was there for the right price. So I am building a new one sooner than I had originally planned.

Don, my sanding drum is a mountain bike tire (none of these either in 1899!) nailed over an old wooden fish float. I used a bicycle inner tube for a little while, but found I was going thru them too fast. The tire lasts much longer. I use 6"x 48" belts and cut them lengthways (to 3"x48") to fit the drum and get twice the life out of a belt.

If you had to do a LOT of spar building I would make the shaft out of something stronger than the threaded 1/2" rod I used , and run the whole deal on bearings.

[Paul G.]

Stephen, do you run the sander along the spar turning it at intervals?
Whats your technique?

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

Very good website, Stephen!:)

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

Just a thought.

From what I recall about main booms on Bristol Channel Pilot Cutters, I would be inclined to keep the old boom in store as a spare.

This is the last thing that you want to hear, as you make the beautiful new one, of course, but HWT's boats got through several of them...

[Russ Manheimer]

Andrew,

I remember reading in one of Tilman's books about Mischief breaking her boom a week out from Lymington after a long voyage. HWT laid the boom on deck, cut off a foot or so from each end to save the fittings and then chucked the rest overboard. The cruise finished with a boomless main.

Stephen, do you make the boom 16 (or 32) sided before sanding? Any hollow plane work?

Russ

[Stephen]

I figure if I break this new one I will build yet another round one - but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. I don't think that there is a high demand for a 30' spar around here - so the old one will remain in storage for some time as a spare unless I can find someone who needs it.

This spar (7-1/4" diameter x 29') was 8 sided with an old worm-drive circular saw (tilts the oppostite direction to enable you to cut the 45 degree corners off the square stock), then 16'd and 32 sided with a power planer, then followed by a few passes with a long jointer plane to get it close to 64 or round.

As for the spar sander tool:
I make a couple passes along the length of the spar, then turn the spar and repeat. The important thing is to keep the tool moving - holding it in one spot will create hollows and depressions. I start with 60 grit and chase with a quick pass with 80 grit to remove the heavy scratches - then I sand the spar longitudinally by hand or orbital sander to finish up. The boom and topmast I made for the boat are both fir - you go thru quite a few more belts than you would on a spruce spar.

Now I'm in the process of building the comb for the boom - pics to come.
Thanks for the praise on the website - I built/run that myself.
Apparently Tilman once came aboard Carlotta to have a look around when the boat was still in the uk.:cool:

[Don Kurylko]

Thanks Stephen, I’ve tried inner tubes on my spindle, but they didn’t work. I may try a tire like you did. I need something with greater friction. I can’t seem to get the belt to turn at all. Could be the diameter of the drum is too small because all it does is spin like a dragster doing a burnout!

I’m doing the mast for my cutter right now and, like you, I did most of the fairing longitudinally and it turned out pretty fair and smooth. Because I couldn’t get the drill/drum thingy to work, I just proceeded to do the finish rounding by hand, shoe-shine boy fashion, with the belt cut open. It wasn’t all that hard to do actually and I had complete control over the belt – no digging in or gouging. It was a bit time consuming, for sure, but it worked wonders for my biceps! Final sanding with a curved rubber pad cut from an old set of kneepads was also done by hand. Who needs a gym anyway?

The mast is 37’ long by 7” diameter Douglas Fir, hollow bird’s mouth construction. Next will be the boom, which is 4” in diameter and 21’ long; then the bowsprit, topmast, gaff and spinnaker pole. Move over Charles Atlas!

[Stephen]

Yeah, give the tire a try. Nelson has the best mountain biking in Canada - I'm sure one of the shops there would give you a used tire for free.
The drum should have an elliptical face too - so that the belt tracks true and doesn't just slide off the end. That does indeed sound like quite the workout program you're on! For the amount of spars you have yet to build I would definitely invest more time in getting your drum sander working. I'd send you mine, but it's now being used by a friend building new 50' masts for his schooner (there's alwasy someone doing something bigger eh? - that gives me comfort).

I have to finish this boom and do some repairs to the bowsprit and then I should be mostly done with the spars.
Here's the topmast (5-1/4" diam. x 25') waiting for varnish:

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid207/p35fd6693bfb1495beabeced757e0d555/eeb4c8b5.jpg
That was an ordeal to build. Only because it was a 8" dia. mast from a fishing boat first - nice piece of wood, so worth making into a topmast. So first I had to bring it from round to square, then 8,16,32, and then back to round again! Nice stick though. Worth the effort.

Like Atlas, I've been moving boulders around too for a tidal grid I'm building here. Never a dull moment....:rolleyes:

[Don Kurylko]

Cheers Stephen, I’ll give it a try. I hope we cross tacks someday. I would really love to see your boat.

[John B]

and me.:)

comb? do I sense a change in reefing philosophy?

[Stephen]

Negative - no change in reefing happening. It was common for these boats with the Appledore gear to have a comb fitted on top of the boom for the foot of the sail. I'll see if I can find a picture here somewhere for you....
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid207/p76365b40de536d46f2731e6a17f8b671/eeb0ff5b.jpg

[John B]

ah, I see.

[Stephen]

It's finished!
8 coats of Behr varnish followed by 2 of Clipper clear.
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid210/p2e7d8f2807ad4caa0ea3bd4ccddd3126/edff41c3.jpg


http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid210/p6ff4672a88f650139703bdd6381f60df/edff414e.jpg

[Nanoose]

bump