Main mast rebuild

[NPen]

Hi all!

I told Bob months ago that I would post the details of my main mast rebuild as I go, and am finally carrying through on that promise. I just posted several photos of the process, but also have a ton of close ups of the mast before I pulled it apart. They might be good for anyone looking to do a similar project who doesn't want to get to the rebuild process having forgotten where each hardware fixture goes.

 

This project started because, like my mizzen, water had gotten underneath the fiberglass and started to get into the wood. Or at least so I had assumed, based on the blistering I was seeing under the paint. When I started pulling the fiberglass off to see the damage, however, I saw that the water had actually caused the glue to release. Or maybe the glue had just gotten old and released, I'm not sure. Either way, as the fiberglass came off, the wood pieces separated, often with a resounding and disconcerting "pop" as if the fiberglass had been holding them in place.

 

After taking the fiberglass off and dismantling the individual pieces (about 12 of them), I put them in the paint booth of the marina shed, and kept it under heat and fan for about two months, until a moisture meter showed them to be dried out. They were pegged on the meter when I put them there, so I was concerned about how much damage the moisture had done. Amazingly, when they dried out not a single piece showed any rot or other damage, and I was able to use all the the pieces. This is amazing because I can't imagine how difficult and expensive it would've been to try to buy and cut douglas fir to fit the exact dimensions of those pieces. Not on my budget.

 

So the pieces inside have plywood strips on the inside that serve as alignment pieces. It gives you two inches on either side of the side pieces that the narrow side pieces fit into. Those little strips were pretty rotted out, and I broke half of them getting the mast apart, but it was pretty easy for the carpenter here to cut me a whole set of new ones on the cheap. They ended up fitting perfectly. There were four pieces on the top of the mast as it tapers that would've been hard to remake, but luckily they were in good condition, so I kept those.

 

As you can see in the photos, once the wood was dry the really only challenge in the project was the set up--getting the pieces exactly flat on a level would be crucial to getting them aligned and making sure the mast was straight when I glued it together. The poured concrete floor of the warehouse shed was nowhere near flat. For the building table I took plywood boards on end, supported with 2x6's. I ran carpenter string from the end to end, then put in the plywood as frames. I shimmed each one with wedges until they just barely hit the carpenter's string. It worked out really well, and when the mast pieces were laid out it gave me a flat base to build off of.

 

The rest went pretty quickly. I used system 3 epoxy with wood flour and colloidal silica to make the glue, and built the mast up in sections--base, then top, then middle. The middle was tricky. Since the base and top had end pieces, it was very easy to line them up. All of the middle joints, however, join in different places to give the mast extra strength. I had drawn alignment lines where the middle pieces met the base and top joints, but not where all the middle pieces joined together. What I had to do was build up the top and base, then basically glue the middle pieces together at the same time I glued them to the top and base. Yes, I got epoxy everywhere. But it worked, and after heat gunning off all the excess glue, it looks great and, more importantly, straight and strong.

 

I thought fiberglassing would take forever, but it was way easier than expected. The boatyard had a roll of fiberglass two or three feet wide, so I just put that at the base of the mast and, after wetting down three sides of the mast, rolled out fifty feet of fiberglass onto the wetted wood. Then I wetted out the fiberglass, so that those three sides were done. When it kicked, I trimmed off the excess, flipped it, and did the same on the other side. The result is that the mast has two overlapping layers of fiberglass, with so much epoxy wetted into the wood and gluing it together that it must be significantly stronger than when it was first built.

 

After the fiberglass I sanded off the rough parts, primed it, faired it, and have sanded it. It's ready for paint in the next few days, then I'll put the hardware back on. Who knows, I might have a boat with masts on it in the next few months. After three years of fretting and saving up for this project, it's a real dream coming true as I watch.

 

Anyway, sorry, Bob, for taking so long to post, but I hope this is informative and answers any questions people out there might have about what all goes into rebuilding one of our masts. It wasn't easy, but it sure wasn't the nightmare project I had envisioned it might be.

 

Neil

[Clyde A. Phillips]

My thanks go out to all of you who make me think things out to bring back old memories; good memories at that.  I only hope that my forty to fifty year old memories are accurate.  I have written some memories down, here and elsewhere, for which further thinking found better details.  Hopefully I have corrected those errors.  And hopefully you all realize the feeble mind from which all this "wisdom" comes!  Working on and sailing Newporters back then, and comparing them now, has been, and is, a great joy to me.  You folks make old age a happy time and I thank you all.

[NPen]

Thanks Clyde, for the great response. And yes, I misspoke about the strips that went on the front and back. There was one inch on either side, not two. That makes more sense.

And looking back on the way I put it back together, it would've been waaaay easier to do each side instead of putting together the top and bottom first. I laugh now that I didn't do that, especially since I had put alignment marks on the scarfs when I disassembled it, so that would've really helped. That'll be a good lesson learned for the next time the masts are due for a rebuild. Hopefully if my work holds that won't be for another 56 years!

[bob mitchell]

Comment by bob mitchell 5 minutes ago

Delete Comment

I am not sure if it is just me that can do it, but when I go to the actual string page, in this case Neil's original string, not the main page, I get to edit - so I did!!! Actually, watch for this - sometimes the main page won't edit, but it does edit in the original string. The only thing I have found is to delete and do again, but I am not sure who all can delete, it may just be me, but I would think people can delete their on comments, but not sure

[Hans Petrie]

Just to close this thread, I want to say how much I appreciate Clyde and his wisdom, attention to detail, and willingness to share his knowledge with all of us.  Also for Bob who runs the site and how much I have learned compared to what I knew before this site existed.  Indeed, before everyone started to contribute to this site we pretty much just had to make it up as we went.  So long live Newporter 40 Together!  Great boats, great people.

[Clyde A. Phillips]

Very well said.  You are a poet for sure.  But a poet who enjoys every part of the boat, even the work, which is the vital part of the whole.  Enjoy her to the end!

[Hans Petrie]

I know by now that I can never sell my Newporter.  So much of my blood, sweat and tears are epoxied into her wooden soul and all the sins I have committed on her are so much a part of her backbone that I must sail her to the very end.  I have looked at other boats and fantasized about what must be the low maintenance of full fiberglass and aluminum and stainless steel but I always pull in to my boat at night and admire her waterline and taffrail and square masts and repent of my infidelity.  Then I remember my times in the boatyard and realize all the boats that I have seen that have all the modern wonders such as aluminum or steel hulls, or full fiberglass, or this or that neatness - but they have languished for years on the hard and are still there the next year when I haul out for a new project.   I'm sure I'm married to this boat by now even though marriages to boats are not legal in the state of California and I cannot get tax breaks or benefits for her.  I have looked at other boats and always felt I have the best one, despite all the scars and wrinkles and secrets and imperfections.   I know she has the soul that is one with mine.

 

[Clyde A. Phillips]

Boy, this thing use to allow 15 minutes to make corrections, but I don't now see how to do that.  So this, all in the next to last paragraph.

"in not all of it." should be "IF not all of it."

"that it is best to do it"  should be  "that is the best way to do it."

"so your buy can find"  should be  "so your byer can find"

[Clyde A. Phillips]

I would go more for "half frames" for a butt joint on one frame before using butt blocks (backing plates) between frames for a couple of reasons.  Number One being that this is an old procedure that has worked for years.  Of course, the old boats had eight inch siding (width, fore and aft) on the frames. But there is enough wood in a Newporter frame.  Number Two is that epoxy adhesives work wonders in holding things together.  Just make sure you drill pilot holes (on a slight angle toward the center of the frame and stagger the holes.

 

And Number Three (if I can squeeze it in with the "couple" of reasons) is not really a reason, it's advice: span at least three frames for a new piece of planking, the two for the ends and one for the middle.  This is somewhat connected to the negative about butt blocks (backing plates).  Butt blocks and a piece of plank that only covers the space between two frames put a flat spot in the normally continuously curving plank panel.  A good shiny paint job with the sun reflecting off it will cause that flat area to stick out like a sore thumb.  Remember, flat spots are a mark of poor workmanship, and who wants that on a "pride and joy?"  So, you think, what difference is it to the planking under water?  Well, not much, maybe, but it does tend to slow the boat and may cause the boat to want to track in a long radius circle, which will cause the man at the wheel to have to hold opposite rudder, which adds more drag that slows her more.  You may loss enough speed to make you wonder what's taking you so long to get "there."

 

You are right about proper scarfs.  But the scarf should be done on the flat and then installed.  I think I'd take out only long, large pieces of planking, in not all of it.  A large expensive job?  It's the best way but beware, it may reveal a lot of bad wood you don't know about now.  It you are doing this job so you can keep a good boat that it is best to do it.  But if you are just getting rid of rot so your buy can find no soft wood, go ahead and join the "Honest John Used Boat Society" section of the Society of Dishonest Used Boat Salesmen.  If you can do that and feel good about it, feel good about what happens as a result, too.

 

Back to Bob.  If you still need to double up the frames for fasteners make sure to really saturate all the wood with epoxy as he did in his repairs.  That should keep future rot in the future.

[Hans Petrie]

Point taken on doubling up frames and rot.  Fortunately none of the frames have been rotten so far.  I have added (for good or ill) a "part of frame" screwed to the "real frame" to add more area for screwing in replacement skin where a backing plate was not possible to put in.  Basically, when replacing a section of skin you have to have something to attach the new skin to.  So if your joint ends on a frame you have "half a frame" to attach it to.  So sometimes I add another part of a frame to that to give it something solid to go into.  It isn't a real frame in the sense of being structural except for giving the replacement section of skin a better attachment point to the real frame.  If the joint ends on a void (e.g. no frame).  Then I use what I call a "backing" plate so the new skin has something to go into.  I'm sure the proper way is to scarf it all together but it hasn't been practical for some of the repairs I have had to do.  It's one of those judgement calls.  I also have a life raft and epirb and vhf just in case I'm wrong and she starts to break up...

[Clyde A. Phillips]

Your process of repair is good, and well put, with one exception.  I would NOT double up frames.  If the frame is bad take it out and replace it.  See Bob's posts on his work.  It is possible and it is easy (well, that's relative).  If the frame (or anything else wood) needs the support of doubling it really need replacing.  Remember, rot is the result of a living organism that if left in the boat will just continue to reproduce and eat.  Putting nice tasty wood next to a rotting piece just gives the critters something else to eat.  Google "dry rot" and see the discussion in Wikipedia--very interesting.  It mentions epoxy cures and the use of antifreeze as means of getting rid of the rot fungus.

 

Bob's methods of apron and frame replacement left me wondering at first, but it all looks good to me now.  The change of mind is from my old technology finally giving way to the new.  In fact, if I were in the market for a Newporter his is the one I'd want to buy.