We Have a Mast

It's been a long road, with tons of sanding disks, rivets, taps, machine screws, tape, Lanacote and some blood here and there. After all that, today, the stick went in. We have a mast.

Photos courtesy of :Ray Zebas

Thanks to Anders and Jeff of PT Shipwright's Co-Op and Gus the crane guy.

Oh, and Kerry, my dedicated and hard working First Mate.

The day started out calm and promising.

Brigadoon lay ready for her mast.

Gus the crane operator arrives as promised, making us very happy, after we have to cancel yesterday. He did some quick schedule juggling yesterday and wrote a check of hope he cashed today. It was great to see him arrive early.

And here comes the mast, for the second time in as many days.

Masthead, with anti-bird Mohawk.

All wrapped up nice and safe.

Gus, the crane operator, rigging our mast while some guy who I have no idea who he is, tries to stuff a check at Gus. I was too busy to whip out my, "do you mind waiting just a moment and not distract my crane operator while he is rigging my job," speech. I still puzzle at it, looking at this photo.

Check guy goes away, the spar is rigged and up she goes.

Some very careful walking to Anders and Jeff...

Kerry hands it back to Jeff, who came down to the boat...

And we get ready to lower the spar.

Kerry clears the electrical, which has to feed down first.

Anders and Jeff, making sure it's right.

At this point the spar is mostly in the boat.

The unskilled help is sent below to catch the mast.

After some wiggling, the spar slipped onto the step.

Furlers are installed.

The smooth as glass marina made this job much easier. It would have been very difficult yesterday.

And there she is, with her spar standing and rigging good and snug.