Kaimusailing

There were a few little projects to finish up, the coaming at the forward port hatch, a soft spot in the gunwale at the starboard end of beam #4, and repair of the port turning block. There was also some movement in the lower spreader stays at the mast, so I began to investigate. The stays run from near the top of the mast, over the ends of the three spreaders, and then down to fittings near the gooseneck on the mast. There are three spreaders, a forward one aiming at the forestay, and two side spreaders aiming at the shrouds. The spreaders limit mast bend in those three directions and take the place of lower shrouds. We had seen the fitting for the port stay wobbling up and down during the recent shakedown.
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The stay was slacked off and the fitting unbolted from the mast. I could see right away the bolt hole was elongated. The wood was soft around it and more soft spots were found above it for about 2 feet up the mast. This was very discouraging. I cut away a bunch of the soft wood and ground away the paint on the mast up and down from the site of the rot. I could see that this was an area that had been repaired before. I had put in a plug of pressure treated wood about 2 years ago. Some of the pressure treated wood was punky. Inside the mast I could see white fungus, even on the epoxy coating inside the mast. I left the excavation to dry out.
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I ended up taking a day off while I ruminated about this problem. It was just like the beam rot that was found a year ago and ended up causing a summer of beam replacement. Do I have to replace the mast, or can I repair it?
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The next day was a rain day and I could see a winter coming with me drooling at the computer, wishing I could be outside, except for the snowdrifts and ice. I began to get my get up and go going and went down to the docks and did a little work. The mast problem didn't look so bad after a two days of worrying and contemplating mast failure, spars splintering, and falling down on us out at sea. I ran a tape measure down the inside of the mast from the bad spot to see where the bottom of the internal void was. I then found it was right about at the level of the halyard winches, just about a foot above the deck table. I checked the lower part of the mast below the deck table and it looked OK. The halyard winches were removed and a hole saw was used to drill into the mast, into the void, from both sides. Debris was removed using the shop vac. I decided to flood the lower part of the void, which extended below the winches, with an antifungal mixture made of boraxo and alcohol.
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Epoxy with colloidal silica was mixed to the usual vaseline viscosity and applied to the hole left by the turning block when it tore out of the port cabin top deck. The mixture was applied to the inside to seal the hole so that later it could be filled from above with a less viscous mixture to penetrate the torn up deck and create a good substrate to mount the block back onto the deck.
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The weather was colder and I was surprised that the epoxy had set properly overnight. New fasteners were sized for the turning block and the deck was redrilled for mounting it. The wood was damp, however, and it would have to dry further before the block could be finished. Perhaps the dampness had something to do with the blocks fasteners letting go.
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It was windy and chilly. Work below decks was comfortable, work topside was not. There was soft wood that I noticed when installing the new beam #4. At the starboard end of the beam, in the beam trough at the outboard gunwale, the sheer stringer was bad. This stringer runs forward into the pilothouse and aft into the stern storage space. It was fine in those places. The bad spot was attacked with pry bar, hammer, multitool, chisel, and the shop vac to clean up the mess. It looks like the piece of wood that went bad was restricted to the short width of the beam trough, only about a foot.
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The turning block mounting area was flushed with straight alcohol to try to extract moisture and left to dry overnight. The mast repair required a long plug, about 4”X25” and 5/4” thick. It was made of 4 1” strips 5/4” wide, cut to fit. There was also a hole in the middle of them for the mast spreader through bolt.
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It will take a few days to finish the repairs due to cool temperatures and multiple layers of epoxy. Also the two part urethane paint will need extra time to harden in this weather.
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The picture is of the Cape May light, this time taken when the light is flashing in our direction. It looks like the Fujitsu J20 camera auto focuses well in wide mode, but doesn't do so well when zoomed. I will have to learn how to use it better.