Spartan II · new build
A much bigger boat for us... for the last 14 years, since I built and launched her, we've been cruising on our 12' Welsford Scamp LUNA. This is going to be fun!
When Arnt bought his 23' gaff cutter ANJA, it had a solid fir mast that was smaller in diameter than designed in the plans. Finding it much too flexible, he build a new one, and hung this one up in rafters of his shop. We took it down and scraped off all the paint to see if it would work for our new boat.
After stripping the paint off it looked like it might be ok. However, it seemed to be made up of many pieces, so we ripped it down the centre on the bandsaw to see what the structure was. There was some rot in the bottom where the tabernacle hinge bolt went through, but the scarfs looked fairly good if we put in a couple of dutchman repairs into the few spots we didn't like. The plans for this boat call for a hollow mast of Douglas fir, so this might be just the ticket!
Once we achieved the desired sidewall dimensions for the hollowed section, we routed out and epoxied in a few dutchmans to the iffy spots of the original build. And, we cut the rotten bottom off and put in a nice long 12:1 scarf to receive a new butt end.
Arnt had been wondering what to do with this old chunk of fir... it's now going to be the base of our mast. It's a bit heavier than ideal, hoping it doesn't ruin the righting moment too much.
You'll note there are no wires in the mast... I've decided to keep the boat systems as basic as can be, I'll hoist an anchor light when I need one, and judge the wind strength and direction by analog means.
Nobody else here is logging a Spartan II yet. See the boat.