Nanoose's mast

[Nanoose]

Just to be clear...this is DAVE posting, not Deb (although she may, from time to time, supervise). Thought I'd attach some photos of our main being pulled and what we found when it came down... We're having our typical westcoast spring weather, rain in all it's varying forms.

We discovered that the mast wedges were completely saturated, which explains at least one persistent leak.

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid225/p97219051187da775e98f4cd940051e82/ea38981f.jpg

Once the wedges were removed it was pretty straightforward to pull.
Jonathan Blanchard worked the crane like the pro he is...


http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid225/p6977b8593e4c3841af2f29fff3523394/ea389836.jpg


http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid225/p1014ff48a789c1f0c29ac22fd9c4362a/ea389835.jpg

Here's the section that Deb originally noticed a few months ago.

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid225/p3ebda6c86156d0302ba3052f68fc89e8/ea389829.jpg

And another section that is a tad "soft". I'm not sure what was actually keeping this all in the air.

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid225/p7dcb0b60b7cf3b231957aa844b0e8e6a/ea38982a.jpg

Just after Deb took this photo she asked "is there anything I can do to help?" Being the nice guy that I am I picked that moment to drop the mast on her leg (oops!). She's pretty tough though and nothing was broken. Sam, our four-legged friend, didn't help at all but he did have a fun time at the marina.

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid225/pa658f4890882ec5dfe99673a0d4f0512/ea389826.jpg

As you can see...not the straightest of masts.
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid225/p23fa03600e4758d6f13ba7394f732d06/ea389824.jpg

I"m really glad it's down. The most nerve-wracking part of the day was bringing the mast to our house. We borrowed a mast trailer from Jonathan which saved us cutting it up but there was a real chance that the mast would disentegrate along the way. The fact that we didn't have the lights connected on the trailer just added to the pucker factor.

We'll keep you posted.

Dave

[S.V. Airlie]

Dave.. Thanks for the pictures.. one question.. well, perhaps two.
1) Are these pics of two masts.. I ask as one is painted and there is a lot of varnish on the other. Or is the one mast two toned?
2) Are you going to vanrish the new mast or paint it?
I have painted masts.. the problem with painted masts as I see it, is that a varnished mast gives you a better view of said mast for possible rot. Paint covers it up and rot can be easily missed or overlooked.
I am not going to sand down my masts this year. Will leave that to do for next year but I think that, when I do, I'll sand them down to bare wood and varnish them.

Great shots...

[Nanoose]

Morning, Jamie! :)
The two masts on the boat are 'varnished' (it may be cetol; the new one will be varnished) with white paint at the tops. We quite like the look. Very 'shippy'. :)
Deb

[S.V. Airlie]

Yup.. you will be very umm " Shippy ".. Okay, what is the last picture? I see a lot of white..Trying to fit that one into the scheme.. LOL...
I think it must be the perspective... deceptive... revised after looking at the second to last picture...

[Nanoose]

The second to last picture shows the mast still on the trailer - white top and all. The last picture is taken when it's on the ground, along it's length. Dave was trying to show how crooked the thing was at the top due to the rot. It may have been a better shot from the other end....but it does show how wonky it is at the top.

[S.V. Airlie]

That it is..
I just had a bit of trouble with the last shot as the perspective suggests that the upper white portion is huge.. longer than it actually is.
And it does have umm, some wonkiness to it..