THE SHAPING OF THE MAST GETS UNDERWAY.
Over the past 5 weeks volunteer trustees have met on Thursdays to tackle the shaping of the 46 foot mast.
 It must be planed down from a one foot thick trunk to an eight inch round work of art.

 
 Ron (our work of art ) assesses the task.
He began by running a length of string down the mast .When pulled tightly , this shows the high spots or lumps to get a straight flat along one side of the mast.






 Alan and Jane prep for the first planed surface to be made.
Unfortunately the heavy duty plane was broken so D.I.Y. ones had to be used.
 Alan used a lot of  unusual words whilst trying to get the plane to work as you may notice the others have got out of earshot !

 With the aid of the string, the high spots were leveled on the first run
and a board also highlighted smaller errors on small sections.

Alan does a Darth Vader impression.
 before a high spot check with the board.

 

 Once a flat surface has been created , the mast needs turning over to repeat the process on the bottom side. As the mast cannot be lifted by four trustees , a windlass bar was created to give the necessary leverage to roll it.

 The mast first had to be secured so that it could not roll to the left as its weight would dislodge the props and thus the boat fall over.
 OOPS !

This will continue  as a work in progress for some time to come.

FIRST FITTING THE RUDDER

The rudder is now fitted between the metal U shaped "tangs".
and these are slid into the correct positions.
Trustees Ron and Alan came today as it was a two handed job.

The holes for the bolts to fit through the tangs
need to be carefully drilled and for this a set square is used to make sure the drill is upright.
Half a hole was drilled from one side then the other half drilled from the reverse side to create a clean straight  channel.

 The bolts are then temporarily secured .
The tangs can now be spot welded to hold their correct position prior to full welding later.



We all felt another important milestone had been achieved on the coldest day of the year so far !