The long and the short of it

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 The main mast made of sitka spruce required weeks of glueing to get the right length 14m and width and thickness.  It is hollow to reduce weight and tapered.  The final assembly needed many hands on deck to apply glue and maneuver the spagetti-like pieces together, and it all fitted together perfectly.  John has tetris skill.

Getting the fittings for the masts is another challenge.  It is probably not a good idea to build a boat in Johannesburg, or South Africa.  Back at the drawing board (we do old school pieces of paper) and see how we can have these fittings fabricated.

The main boom is made of white ash.  A constant worry is weight.  Ideally oregon or spruce would be better, but we have ash.  Home built boats are known to be way overweight!  We won't be winning any races.

Main mast 14 m

Main boom made of white ash




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