Back home last night about 7:30. A lot of cleaning up and unpacking to do. I have three weeks worth of packed meals that I will tuck in the cabinet for the spring sail on Pamlico and Albemarle Sounds.
I have already been to the wood shop to order a 1"x8"x16' of clear Douglas fir, and visited the boat shop for some advice and friends there say they will be glad to assist. You can see the mast was twisted off and it was exactly at deck level. One point of pride, none of the 16 glues surfaces in the birds mouth mast appears to have failed, all the failure was in the wood. Was the wood, as Lorenzo wondered, fatigued, maybe stress fractures? I will never know.
I may wrap about a foot of the mast, a few inches below deck level and the rest above the deck, with some sort of composite materiel for added strength. Will have to think about that. Wood should be here early next week.
3 comments:
I like the idea of wrapping for extra strength at the deck line. I did the same, using just 4oz fiberglass to make a sleeve ⅓ up the mast from the bottom, where all the stress is concentrated. Wood doesn't like shock loads, apparently, and this seems like a good way to diffuse those surprises. I can't prove it's doing any good, but it makes me think it is. ;-)
My Caledonia yawl has about a six inch collar of fiberglass where the mast goes through the aft deck (thwart). Seems to be there for exactly this reason. Boat was professionally built by Grapeview Point Boat Works in Washington State.
You might think about a preventer on the boom too.
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