Mast and Boom Assembly

Here are some pictures of Shan Skailyn's stub mast and luff spar all assembled last weekend. As you can see, I still have some loose ends to tie up. Some of it depends on whatever reefing system I settle on. My original plan to reef by lowering the sail has proven to be problematic. Not impossible, just requiring more gear than I have at the moment.

Note the two cleats on either side of the stub mast. The one on the right in the picture is for the halyard, so I can quickly release in case things feel out of control (necessary for this unexperienced wanna-be sailor). The other cleat is for the rope that keeps the luff spar tensioned in it's universal joint.

Raise the Sail

Ugghhh, our email system keeps butching my emails... Trying again

Today was an exciting day! For the first time ever I got to see how Shan Skailyn's rigging is all going to work out. Raise that sail!

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Stub mast retainer

(Gonna try to post this again. Yesterday's post got screwed up by our funky email system)

Slowly putting together pictures of little tidbits I've done on Shan Skailyn here and there.

This is the mechanism I made to keep the stub mast in place in case of capsize. It's just a little stainless steel tongue. Only way to remove the stub mast is by depressing the tongue prior to sliding out of the step. The other picture is the deck level mast steps. One for the stub mast (with leather collar just to keep the mast from knocking around) and below it, the universal joint (where the luff spar will sit). Everything seems to fit and hold really well.

Bamboo Mast Completed

I was able to put the finishing touches on the bamboo mast. If you remember, this is part of a stub mast configuration, so the base is made to pivot in a socket; kind of like a universal joint. The eye splice (pink loop) is for threading the downhaul from the boom. The orange wrap is to prevent the boom jaws from wearing into the bamboo. When I lower the sail for reefing, the white collar keeps the boom jaws from dropping below a certain point. In the other pic you see the sheave I installed at the head of the mast so that I can lower the sail for reefing.

Currently working on building the reefing system into the sail and boom. Pix to follow!