Spars
Pole
For the pole, it was just a case of revarnishing (thankfully). It feels slightly oversized with one end of it having a bigger diameter than the other. In addition, the pad eyes were removed and their location re‐filled. I have decided to go for one pad eye only with a single hook attached to both the uphaul and the downhaul.
One piece of advice from Charles that I have not followed was to place the downhaul sheet lead further forward from the mast, in order to prevent the pole from going backward. I know I will regret this….. but I could not bring myself to make another hole in the deck, at least not this year!
Below are the pictures of the pole before (top) and after (bottom) renovation.
Boom
The boom was a bit trickier as it had a crack at a join as well as a long crack under the track. The crack at the join was fixed by opening it and making a wood infill, the crack under the track was filled in with epoxy and microfibers. In addition, for further strength the track groove was filled in with an ash infill. The track was not reinstated, as my intention is to sail either with the loose footed sail for racing or a laced foot sail for cruising.
Below are the pictures of the boom before (top three) and after (bottom three) renovation.
The original gooseneck could not be salvaged, but I managed to find an alternative roller reefing gooseneck.
Mast
The mast mainly needed a revarnish job with a couple of cracks and revarnish job with a couple of cracks and holes to be filled in. An additional piece of work was to replace one of the spreaders which was broken. The replacement was made of solid oak. At this point I took the opportunity to insert copper sleeves, on both spreaders, at the bolt end and at the shroud end in order to minimise wear as it appeared to be the source of the breakage in the old spreader. After Fraser’s survey I had to modify the new spreader slightly as I had not realised that it was supposed to be able to move fully forward on the lee side in order to protect the sail from rubbing against it.
Below are some pictures of the mast after restoration, including the new spreader and its leather boot. The forestay and the jib halyard will be separated and not on the same wire as can usually be the case on Garelochs.
Zephyrus’ deck refit was then completed and she was then taken outside and the mast stepped, in order to take measurements for the forestay, rigging screws and halyards but this is for the next part of this diary.
President: