| Author | Message | ||
     Jeff Roy (Jeffr) Rating: N/A |
Update on my progress. I ended up removing the floor (often referred to as a stringer, but it is a florr) under the mast step. I clung to the hope of leaving it alone and building around it, but when I started to plan the rebuild it became obvious it had to be replaced, not just sistered. So now I have a very clean work area to start from. I am going to modify the way S2 built the step as follows. I am going to put the replacement for that double floor about 1 1/2" aft of it's original placement. That will prevent it from covering the fore most keel bolt, I still can't beleive S2 did that. I am going to add a small floor about 2 1/2" foreward of that original floor to help spread the mast compression load. I am also adding a full width floor between the floor I am replacing and the #3 floor aft of it. This will be the aft end of my new mast step. I am doing this to prevent covering the #'3 and #4 keel bolts and to help stiffen the hull at the leading edge of the keel. The #2 keel bolt will end up between this new floor and the one I moved aft 1 1/2"'s. My goal is to create a mast step that will not have to be dismanlted to get the keel nuts off. I probably will never have to do it again, but there is no way I could sleep if I put things back together the way S2 did. I researched all my options and ended up using Black Locust to make my new floor and the mast step. This wood is stronger than white oak and mahogonay and is virtually rot proof. There is an excelent article about it in this months's Wooden Boat (#160). It grows locally and I found someone who mills it for wooden boat constrction. This is without a doubt the heaviest wood I have ever lifted. I am sure it will add some weight but given it's location in the boat and the function it performs I am comfortable doing so. I just cut the new floors last night. I still have to glue and tab them into the hull and then build the mast step over them. My keel is scheduled to come off on or around June 4 and I am hoping to go in the water around June 11. I have lots of photos, eventually I will put some more on the web. |
