My proposal for this week 9 blog was to complete the changing of the stub axles on its 40-plus year old Snipe trailer. However, my Hernia condition is not allowing me to lie under the trailer to grind the old bolts off, so it’s a matter of waiting for my steel fabricator to spare me a day to undertake this work for me.
Instead, I am now going to move on with the repairs and restoration of the original main and Mizen masts. Sadly the Gaff and Bumpkin were well past restoring and new ones have been pulled out of the JLJ stock, all fully varnished and ready for fitting.
The main mast illustrated identifies clearly the very decomposed and rotten foot of the mast which will have to be cut back by 60 mm, treated and then remoulded. The main body of the mast, which is Spruce, is sound apart from the blemishes under the badly cracked varnish finish caused by poor if no regular cleaning back and annual varnish applications.
I have never understood the practice of using leather strips or pieces of thick leather to act as a protection collar for the masts when they are up against the main mast thwart or when the Mizen mast if set into its slot in the Mizen / rudder step plate. To compound this use they use brass nails hammered into the mast to secure these leather strips. Just crazy! When this leather gets wet it goes extremely hard and cracks, so defeating the reason for having a soft and pliable material to act as a protection for the masts. When removed it’s clear the damage that has been caused by the copper tacks.
The last picture shows a much simpler method to make a protective collar for the spars. It’s a 4 mm braid whipping on the main mast, and for the Mizen step/rudder guide I use a 3 mm white line, giving the Mizen mast a nice snug fit into the access hole.
At the mast head was just a basic stainless ring floating on the top button pin that had connected to it the forestay and two shrouds. I have now replaced this with our JLJ mast head band, such an improvement.
The 2 mast head pulleys were in 2 units set in either side of the mast. These have been removed and I have mortised out a slot for a 59 mm Selden sheave running on a 12 mm spindle. Being a larger diameter sheave it’s easier to haul on the main halyard.
The mast has been repaired and sanded back just leaving a few surface blemishes, but in good order and ready for spray varnish finishing. Finally the mast varnish finish is completed and cured, with just the staining of the nail holes evident, however this is covered by my whipped collar as illustrated earlier.
I had the same problem with the Mizen mast in terms of damage from the nails that were hammered in to fit the leather collar. These nail holes were infilled with an epoxy resin before sanding back.
The completed mast with its whipped collar is such an improvement.
The Gaff was an original with 2 plywood cheeks screwed and fitted either side of the gaff to act as a support and guide when set against the main mast and lifted into its position. Alongside it is the new JLJ Gaff and stainless claw.
There has been a previous poor repair attempted to the original Gaff, a splice joint poorly executed to the side of the Gaff. The ragged joint has been infilled with an epoxy putty, and if any serious pressure were placed on the Gaff the whole jointed area would have come apart and the mainsail would have been flogging violently around the mast. Very dangerous indeed!
Very much the same poor repair attempted to the Bumpkin, a bad split has been glued back together and a bolt has been recessed through the base of the Bumpkin close to the pin.
With all the spars now completely spray varnish finished it’s time to fit the mast head band, the foresail halyard, the shrouds and the cruising pennants. The mast is all ready to drop on the boat’s keel step and secure to the mast thwart.
Whilst you will have noticed in previous illustrations I have fitted Belay pins to the main mast thwart, these are just decorative and use the pins to hang the slack of the halyards on, not load bearing. Both halyards are secured to two open-horned cleats at the mast base.
At an earlier stage I have illustrated the new tiller and rudder assembly. The attached illustrations show you as a comparison the original tiller and adapted extension.
I have replaced the rudder with a new solid JLJ model and a refurbished knuckle joint that came off the original rudder. This is now complete with a gooseneck tiller and extension connected to the knuckle head of the tiller with a bronze tiller head.
My final topic of this blog is the safety of the boat on the trailer when being towed long distances and remembering it will have all its gear and engine in the boat, this increases its weight considerably. I have seen owners using cargo webbing straps thrown over the boat and winched hard down onto the trailer rollers. Yes, there is a certain amount of stability for the hull of the boat on the trailer, but the pressure is in the wrong place and direction.
I consider the outrigged rollers only as a means of launching and retrieving the boat, not for them to take the weight of the boat when in transit. There is considerable ‘rocking’ movement from side to side and these webbing straps just damage the Gunwale rail. The outrigged rollers put pressure on the thin area of hull, on occasions punching holes through the hull.
One’s first consideration is to ensure the keel band is fully supported on the central rollers and pads. Ignore these outrigged trailer rollers for towing long distances.
Make up a simple former/frame to the shape of the underside of the hull. This can be bolted to the ‘TBar’ cross member of the trailer and has a protective pad ( piece of old carpet ) to protect the surface of the hull. In effect you have produced a cradle which the hull sits on. These two formers are in turn bolted to the cross member of the chassis of the trailer.
Then for holding the hull onto this cradle I have these ‘hook plates’ made in stainless steel, one each side to clip over the Gunwale rail, and the securing line pulls down on the chassis, so holding the hull nice and snug on the cradle with the weight distribution being taken not on single rollers but the full edges of the shaped padded cradle. I have trailed many boats over to the Ionian Islands by this method, covering a distance each way of 1850 miles without an issue.
Please keep watching. My next Week 10 rebuild blog of Tiki will focus on
- The stub axle removal.
- The replacement of hubs, bearings and wheels
- The making up of the main sheet with blocks and the lifting gear for the centre plate.