Trip 101- Sunday - August 9th

Went down to focus on the Masthead. More wire going down the mast, and all must be installed properly.

Everything went well and smooth until I hit the Coax Connector at the masthead for the VHF Antenna. Had that been a ten minute item instead of over two hours, I may have stood a chance with getting the stick in the air today.

But, this has to be done right, not in a hurry.

 

The masthead itself.

 

The Anemometer hooked up and ready.

 

I use a moving blanket to help keep the parts on the dock, not the water.

 

This is where the Compression post sets against the ceiling arch. I want a hole down the middle of the box beam and will bisect the corners to find the spot.

From top or bottom, the hole came out really nice.

Note, the hole is offset. This intrigued me at first. Sloppy workmanship? Probably not. Then why? This is spot on the center of the compression post which should be aligned to the center of the mast.

What makes sense to me, is that the post./bulkhead it attaches to, is across from the other bulkhead/closet. Every inch in that opening is necessary. So, they made a conscious decision to gain that inch by offseting the post that amount.

That also begs the question of front to back, why not centered?

On that one, I do not know.

 

After drilling a large hole for the plastic tube to go through, Here are the pieces left over.

The arch is constructed rather peculiarly. I knew the majority of the material is plywood and I also knew the wood would be wet, possibly really soft.

It was.

The Construction.

After boring through the deck casting, and the first layer of gelcoat/fibreglas, I ran into a layer about 3/4" thick of fibreglas. After that was some wet wood followed by a modicum of fibreglas and the fibreglas inner liner.

I thought hard of removing the casting on the deck, open a large oval thru the deck and then dig out the soft wood and replace it with tightly packed fibreglas.

Now, hours later, I am not going to do that. Making an oval of 2 x 6 inches (or so) will seriously weaken the area. So, as a compromise, I will only caulk on top where the tube goes through the deck. This may help the remaining wood to dry out just a bit by being able to breathe into the cabin.

 

Nice mainsheet traveler and pulleys.

 

Later ...