Weekender boom height question

[markfitz]

I know I read this somewhere on here, but I'll be darned if I can find it now...I'm trying to find out if adding a small hunk of 4x4 under the mast inside the mast box to get a wee bit more height under the boom will hurt anything. My father is pretty tall, and I'd love to get the boom about another 4 or 5 inches higher, and thought that might be one way to do it. I wasn't sure if it would make things too top heavy or if it wouldn't matter. Any advice? Thanks!

[Ray Frechette Jr]

I did it myself. Of course I also had a couple hundred pound ballast bulb attached to the keel...

Others have done it too without ballast and with fine report.

[markfitz]

Thanks for the quick reply, Ray. How much did you add?

[Ray Frechette Jr]

Darned if I remember... I do rememeber I could reach down my hand in the hole to pull it out. It was planed down to not be snug to the walls. Hoel drilled in the top to allow me to remove it. Maybe 6 inches?...

[markfitz]

I'd love to get a look at how you added the ballast. I know that used to be on here somewhere too, but the search of the archives doesn't seem to be working right. Or I'm doing it wrong, which is probably more likely.

[Ray Frechette Jr]

Photo's of the process have likelybeen purged by now.

I laminated a few 2x 6's and carved out a bulb profile. Rounded front with tapered trailing edge. This was designed to displace roughly 250 cubic inches. Sanded and varnished to a asmooth finish. Made a flask of plywood with a cleat around the indside to help hold the casting sand in place.

I used some Glacial Silt from a lcoal deposit as my casting sand. Wetted down somewhat so that it would hold faits sshape when squeezed with a fist.

Mold was screwed tp p[lywood lid and lid on flask with sand poured around mold and tamped down well. Plywood top screwed down on top and flask flipped over. Plywood with mold removed from other side once on top and a nice female mold present in the sand.

Used a turkey frier with an aluminum pot on top to melt tireweights down and skimmed off steel clips as they float on molten lead. Poured lead into the mold and let solidify and cool.

Two lead bulb halves made. They are through bolted on eithe side of the keel bedded in 5200 and 3 lengths of threaded stainless steel rod bolting them together through the keel. Epoxy faired away the nuts and nut holes.

[Frank Hagan]

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[markfitz]

Thanks Frank. I also discovered something after dropping a 4" block into the mast box on the boat.

It won't go back into the garage.

[markfitz]

OK, this may be a crazy thought, but I'm going to throw it out there anyway. I am envisioning a slot or a hole in the mast box that I can slide a plate or a steel rod into to hold the mast up about 4-6". Then when it needs to go back in the garage, I lift the mast up a bit and slide it out again. Will the mast box handle that? Any thoughts?

[Ray Frechette Jr]

Here is an easier solution. Pull the mast stub out before backing in the garage. If need be pull out the spacer blocka nd put the stub back in.

[markfitz]

Ha, yeah that occurred to me, but I was thinking it would be heavy and harder to lift it completely out than to just raise it 4 inches and have my wife stuff a rod through a hole. But it's certainly a simpler solution.

[maligno]

A half-inch bolt through the mast box should work. Just make sure it doesn't work loose while sailing.

A quarter-inch hole with a temporary pin in the mast at the level of the boot will keep mast stub up so you can go in to attach or remove the bolt. Then there will be no need to have the Admiral do the menial job.

[markfitz]

Yes, good point! "Keep the Admiral happy" is always good advice.

[Ray Frechette Jr]

It just strikes me as far easier to remove the stub from the mast box and then pull out the spacer and replace than it does to crawl in and out of the cabin to fit a bolt. But whatever works for you.

If stub is sticking plane it down to fit and remove easily.

For spacer bore a finger hole in the end for easy removal..

[Frank Hagan]

I'm a bit skeptical that a bolt through the mast will take the forces without beefing up the mast box quite a bit. I suspect you'll end up splitting the 1x lumber used for the mast box right at that bolt hole. Unless you use something like a rectangular 4" steel tube.

In my Weekender, the mast box was larger than the mast with "mast partners" jammed into the deck hole around the mast. The deck was taking the lateral stress, while the bottom and keel were taking the compression forces. The mast box itself didn't do too much other than guide the mast into place. IIRC, the bottom of the mast box had 1x trim that kept the mast bottom from moving around. I think you have to think in terms of both the lateral stress ... forward/aft and port/starboard ... as well as the compression forces.

The beauty of the Weekender rig is that you can fold the mast down with the sail attached, lash it, and be on your way. I was able to launch in about 15 minutes from the time I positioned myself on the dock. With my Potter, I rig in a separate parking lot, and expect to take 45 minutes stepping the mast, bending on the sail, tightening shrouds, etc. I love my Potter, but i use it a lot less than I did the Weekender. If I only have a 4 hour window to go sailing, 1 1/2 hours are taken up rigging and de-rigging. So I would encourage you to somehow keep the easy rigging nature of the rig as the main consideration, and boom height as secondary.

I made my mast a bit taller, but the boom was at the standard height. I'm 5' 10", and never had a problem with the boom being too low.

[markfitz]

Yesterday I tried dropping a 5" block down into the mast box, but I ended up removing it. It has been a while, and I hadn't remembered that we had adjusted the mast angle by doing the "Slice a wedge off the back and attach to the front" thing, and it looked really ugly sticking up out of the deck. Not to mention that it would probably have messed with the shroud lengths required. So I think it's going to stay the way it is and my dad will have to continue to duck. We're going out today, looks like a nice day for it! Thanks for the advice.

[Rick P]

I'm not so sure my mast angle is correct. Has anyone ever tapered the front and back sides of the section of the mast within the box and setup a nut and bolt arrangement to allow you to fine tune the mast rake? I am thinking a fixed threaded piece recessed in the mast with a bolt through the box and a lock nut on the outside of the opposite side of the box.