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Warped mast


Jan Williamson

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Hi everyone,

I have been consumed with a 600 SF deck and gazeebo this year. Our weather went from rain -rain-rain to 100 degree hot-hot-hot.

August will be dedicated to the boat. I finally got my boat uncovered and went through the needed repairs, like the stub tiller. I didn't drill and embed a new post , but I did through bolt two metal straps on the top and bottom of the stub, and installed a swiveling arm for the ropes to attach. Also went back to just two swivels instead of four. Steering works great out of the water :roll: . When I raised the mast I found it to be quite warped, curving foreward at the top about 1-2 inches or so. I definately contributed to the warp :oops: by storing it on the boom crutch with bungees wrapped around all the sails, lines and such for 10 months.

Any ideas as to fixing it? I wondered if after wood has sat that long if it can be bent back, with steam. I would like to take the boat out but I wonder how the warp will affect things. My daughter has purchased private sailing lessons for me with my boat this fall so I have to fix it soon, or make another mast.

Lesson 48 don't bungee the mast down in the middle :oops:

Maybe the birdsmouth is calling me :lol:

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Jan, with judicious use of bungees you might be able to reverse the bend but the problem is that it will take time and may not bring the mast back to straight. It is likely that there is some twist involved as well. Steam would speed up the process but you'll still be guessing at home much bend to induce in the oppsite direction to leave you with a straight stick.

I think you should be planning a new mast. Birdsmouth would be a good way to go although you might want to get a 4x4 and make one according to the plans to get you back on the water sooner.

Glad you got your steering back to working order.

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Hi Jan,

I'm just about done. I just finished up buiding the hatch cover last night. Just need to glass and paint it then it will be ready to be installed. I still need to apply the non-skid and finish painting then I'll be ready for some rigging. I still need to find a trailer somewhere but it's getting close. How are you enjoying your boat? Been out lately?

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Steve,

I went throught the maintainence and repairs and found many things to work through for this year . A new mast, cockpit drain, and a little area on the cockpit floor and other minor inside things. So with cure time, I probably won't get out this year. My problem is that I take on too many projects at once. I got caught up in a deck and gazeebo project that is taking nearly all summer. We also have had 3 Pacific Rattlers (one of them 43 inches) so far and are trying to de-snake the property. But I did devote 8 months to the weekender exclusively. :roll:

I went to a Northriver boat manufacturer and was going to buy one of their "used trailers" the ones they used to haul the boats to and from the custom paint shops, for half price. Untill my neighbor said I could have his if I got rid of the old boat on it. Turns out to be a great trailer. That's another project I have to work through before I go out again, a few modifications on the trailer.

I look forward to seeing you boat finished! I'll bet it's perty :)

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Jan,

For what its worth...

I don't really think a 1 or 2 inch warp would affect anything...

They usually temporarily warp under load while sailing anyway. If you want, you can find out which way it warps under load and then rotate the mast to compensate for that... it may straighten itself out.

But if you build another mast I would highly recommend a hollow one. I have a lot of load on mine while being stored and never warped a bit. I'm sure you'll be happy with it.

Cheers

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Dave,I have put a few boards in between the mast and the boom at the points where the warps are and bugeed them down. But I don't hold out much hope for it to unbend this year. The wood I used was unseasoned DF. :? If I cut another out of 4x I wonder if it will do the same. Kiln dried is spendy.

Florin, the mast is warped forward and I did wonder if I could still sail it that way.

Adla,

I want to put a drain in the cockpit floor just left of the keel and right next to the bulkhead. Seems to be the low point.

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Jan, you might indeed have the same problem with another unseasoned 4x. It might be that the one you have would have warped whether is was bungeed down or not.

You might buy an unseasoned 4x and see if you can find a local mill with a kiln and have them dry it for you. My father in law has done that sort of thing with local hardwoods. He's found cherry and walnut, for example, that were cut rough and he's taken them to a nearby place with a kiln and had it dried for maybe 15 cents a board foot.

Could be worth a check anyway. At 0.15/BF it would be about $3.20 to have a 16' 4x4 dried. Actually, I suppose you only need about 12' anyway.

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From what I have seen with logging lately and the stock that is availble lately, all of these 4x4's are definitely milled from small trees. Very small! Unlike in the days when the Weekender plans were fisrt produced. Back then they used to mill larger trees into demensional lumber. With the larger tree, the growth rings were af a greater circumfrance, thus less noticable 'twist' and warp. If you look closely, most lumber lately only has a few boards taken out of most of the trees (smaller circumfrance).

I laminated mine, and have had no twist or warp. A little more work and I suppose cost, but I am very happy with teh end result. :)

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After reading about some of the wooden boat builders and the mast and soem of them saying "the mast wood should be seasoned at least 5 or 6 years, I realized I'll have to do something different.

Dave, I will look for a lumberyard with a kiln. Capt'n Jake, I know you used VG DF, how may boards did you use?

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Jan, I expect that the reason for that long seasoning period is that they were talking about air drying a tree.

You know, I had a thought about laminating a mast. Instead of making a solid mast, you could easily make a box of 3/4" stock with the corners well rounded by router.

You may be able to get kiln dried 1 x 4 stock that would be useful for the purpose. It would be plenty strong for a Weekender and lighter than a solid stick. Tapering would be done with a saw prior to gluing up. a block inserted at the top and bottom would close up the spar. The lower block would be long enough to receive screws from the hinges.

This was commonly done on large boats for booms and masts. Don't know why it wouldn't work for a smaller boat, too.

Drawings available if you want.

Dave

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I bought a couple of 16' fir 2x4s. These were aquired at a very reputable lumberyard here in town. The wood was straight grained and the rings were very close. I looked for quarter-sawn ones. The moisture content was measured at around 10%. I believe I paid just under 80 bucks CDN including a crapload of canadian taxes :-)

I used my big-bad tablesaw to cut the staves. Due to the fact that the pieces are so long and they flex a lot while machining, you have to use featherboards to hold them down to the table and pushed against the fence... and some sort of supports before and aft the tablesaw. A helper is handy to have. I did a few trial runs with scrap wood before I butchered the good stuff. I recommend gluing should be done immediately after cutting to prevent warping of the staves. With the scrap pieces I used to setup the machine, I made a 2' mock-up mast section which I often use to show off my skills to innocent passers by when asked about the hollow mast.

We made "V" blocks (about 6" tall) out of scrap ply (about 6" tall) which were glued (with a glue gun) to the shop floor about every 2' (in a perfectly straight line made with a chalk line). These are essential for holding the mast straight to prevent warpage during the epoxy cure, plus it holds the mast off the ground during setup for easier handling. We painted unthickened epoxy on the mating surfaces and let them sit for about 15 min for the epoxy to saturate the wood fibers. Then we thickened the epoxy with milled cotton fibers and painted a generous amount on the mating surfaces. With the help of my mate I set-up all the staves and tied the mast together with tie straps (this can be frustrating). We checked it over and added more epoxy or wiped off where it was squeezing out. We've left it untouched for about 3-4 days for the epoxy to fully cure afterwhich we sanded and varnished it with 6 coats of good spar-varnish.

This sounds like hard work, but we've had it done in1/2 a day (painting took a whole week including drying time between coats).

Good luck

Good luck

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Jan, I believe that Florin is refering to a birdsmouth mast (which I wish I had done).

I used to 2x4 clear VG Fir. For some unknown reason, the clear fir is thicker in demension than standard building materials. From memory I believe it to be around 1 3/4" vs the standard 1 1/2".

for another unknown reason, clear fir is very expensive here (at least where I go). I have heard of it being cheaper on the East coast. Maybe it would be less in your neck of the woods as I know they are still falling larger tree down your way. ;) ;)

Now back to my gunwals on my mini-paw. :roll:

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Dave if you'd like to send me a drawing, I would be very interested. I have a source for 1x4 VG kiln dried. Kind of spendy, but if it would not have to be replaced as soon, worth it

Florin, I like the idea of the v backets glued to the floor, even if i do the square tapered, or the birdsmouth, I can use that method,with the square cutout instead of the v of course. Adla ought to be looking at this thread too :)

Capt'n Jake VG DF is spendy down here too, 4-5 bucks a board foot for 1x4

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you could cut the mast down the middle, remove a 1/2 inch of material from the center and glue and screw it back together with a peice of 1/2 inch ply sandwiched in between. that should straighten it out. if you dont want the exposed plywood edges, leave it about 3/16ths short all the way around and cap it off with a strip of hardwood. if you want to lighten the mast, while its split in half, rout out as much of the inner areas as you think you can get away with, while still retaining strength. i built my mast this way originally to prevent warping. worked so far.....

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Jan, here are a few quick drawings of a square box mast. The idea would be to taper the pieces prior to gluing. I based the dimensions on the plans. The mast is 3 1/2" square at the base and 2 1/4" square at the top. I drew the overall length as that above the hinge point assuming you don't need to redo the lower portion.

The radius of the curves was draw as 3/4" and I would plan to put the wide pieces on the sides of the mast.

You should be able to clamp a guide to the boards and trim with a circular saw or router. You could also create a raised fence for your tablesaw and nail a straight guide board to the mast stock and then rip the boards that way. You should be able to get the entire box out of three 1x4s and then use some scraps (cut up the old mast?) for the plugs.

If you need clarification of the tablesaw fence, let me know.

I left out the plugs for the top and bottom. The ticket for shaping the plugs would be to clamp two adjacent sides together and trace the other edges onto the oversized plug stock. The bottom plug should be a few inches longer than the hinge leaf. I'd make the top one about 12" which will get the lower end of the plug below the attach point for the shrouds and halyard blocks.

Since you're making a new mast, you might consider adding a wee bit to the height to allow you to spread out all that hardware at the top. According to the plan, the upper section of the mast is just over 11' long. since you'll need to buy 12' lumber (or scarf shorter pieces) you could go almost the full 12' without adding much weight aloft. I say almost only because I'm figuring you'll have to take a wee bit off each end to get a pretty surface.

Hopefully these drawings are clear enough.

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post-19-129497642562_thumb.jpg

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