The weather has been far from ideal the last week. Around freezing point and strong winds fro m the east. That weather will continue for the coming days. You almost want to have global warming this way.
The third layer of the mast is glued at last and I cut the corners of mast on the table saw with the blade at a 45 deg angle.
After cutting the mast as far as possible to a 58 mm square I started to drill a few holes to make room for the halyard sheave. It is better to do it now before the mast is round.
I have the feeling the sheave I bought ages ago is a bit large but that's what I have so that's what I will use.
I also made the jaws for the boom that will go around the mast. As I had no white pine left I used larch. The grain looks quite straight and just let's hope it is not to brittle.
Now a lot of planing with a hand plane to get mast and yard round.
Next is sanding using an inversed sanding belt from my stationary band sander.
The off topic motor hatch is almost ready.
I filled the groves with blackened epoxy. The epoxy was a bit thick viscous so not all groves are filled to the same level.
After a lot of sanding the hatch looks nice from a distance.
Eastern will be spend up North. Usually my Pilot will go into the water at the Friday before Eastern. Looking at the weather that will be a few days later. No sense to start the season with frozen water valves.
Last Sunday our grandchildren went back home. It were 9 very nice days with them but during that period I did not work on the Peapod. Also the weather was not very good at around freezing point to do some gluing.
At last I ripped the white pine into the necessary a bit oversized strips to glue the mast, boom and yard.
Just before I wanted to glue the yard from two pieces I noticed it was a bit shortish. Luckily I remeasured before I put on any glue and compared it to the drawings. In the end it was 40 cm short. After some more checking I concluded that I made a translation error from Imperial to Metric. Maybe next time I should buy an Imperial tape ruler and not translate measurements anymore...
Luckily I stiil had the piece I cut from the yard to make it the wrong length. With two butt joints I think I have safely solved the issue.
After gluing the yard I trimmed the sides on the table saw. Next I made a 38 mm cirkel with a compass. On the table saw with the blade at 45 degr. I cut all sides to this cirkel what resulted in a 8 sided yard. Next step will be a plane and some elbow grease to get it near round.
The boom is also glued from two pieces to get the thickness. As the boow will remain square I only need to cut the boom to the right size and round of the edges on the rouiter table.
The first two pieces of the mast are glued today. The temperature of around 5 degr C together with the electric heater and using the low temp harder made that possible.
I did not glue all three layers in one go as this is a slippery operation and I have better control with only two layers. As always: You cannot have enough clamps.
A short update on the off topic motor hatch. I used the router to make a grove in the short sides of the teak.
After that I started filling the groves with blackened epoxy. This again is a somewhat messy operation. As I have to sand at least 1 mm from the teak to make it flush it should not be a problem.
I did miscalculate the amount of epoxy needed so I ran out of supply after half the groves done. An order for extra supplies is sent out right away. With a bit of luck I can continue on Saturday. Temperature permitting of course. Spring is not there yet!
As temperatures are rising around here it was time again to do some gluing after I bought some lower temperature harder for the epoxy.
Priority project is the restoring of the teak deck on the motor hatch of my ONJ Pilot. After 12 years of abuse water has entered the plywood on which the teak was set. Also this hatch was not strong enough and was flexing a bit when standing on it. As my motoring season starts around Eastern something had to be done.
First I "dismantled" the construction. Demolition is another word for the same action.
The plywood base was only 10 mm so no wonder it flexed. I was unable to get the 4 mm thick teak strips of the ply without some damage so I decided to buy new teak decking material.
My lumber yard for special woods does not sell 4 mm teak strips but 9.8 mm thick with a grove at both sides to form a T. This way you can lay the teak butted and optically still have a grove between the strips. When I had to pay for the teak I realized teak is not a cheap wood......
I have now reglued the sides and glued in a 15 mm plywood sheet. To get that in and to accomodate the thicker teak I routed a deeper ridge in the sides.
The coming days I will glue in the teak strips and fill the seams with blackened epoxy. Although my epoxy supplier is not over enthousiastic about the idea I prefer that option over the use of bedding compound. In my opinion the move in this size of teak is minimal. We will see in the future.
Today I went again to my wood supplier to buy spar stock. In the end I decided not to buy Oregon Pine but to get Yellow Pine ("Amerikaans Grenen").
I bought board of 20 x 190 mm and resp. 3400 and 2700 mm length. This compensates a bit the price of the teak.....
The long stock will be ripped the coming days to get three layers of 60 mm wide planks that will be glued together to get the 600 x 600 basis from which to make the spar.
The shorter plank will be enough to make the boom and yard. Work for the coming days. As of coming Friday our two grandchildren will stay for a week so progress will be limited.
