Mast base installation (3), tiller

We worked for 4 hours between last saturday and today. I asked my friend Fanco Toscano (who builds beautiful astronomical telescopes here in Matera) to shorten and modify the original HC16 steel bar that fixes the mast base to the aka. Here's the result

The lower end screws into the aluminum mast base, while the top end goes trough the front aka.

The whole thing

Meanwhile, Cinzia finished the tiller ready for painting and installation

Now we must coat with resin or paint everything,

Total work time to date: 794 hours

Mast base installation (2)

It's being an unusual March, very cold and windy. One hour of work today to complete boring of the 15 mm diameter hole in the front aka and in the mast base pad.

Next step will be coating the holes with resin, covering the pad with fiberglass and gluing the pad to the aka.

Total work time to date: 790 hours

Mast base installation (1)

After a long hiatus due to several reasons, here we are again in the shop to invent a proper way to secure the mast base to the front aka. In this picture you see a temporary screw placed in the center of the aka. We then bored a hole through the whole thickness with a 12 mm bit, but the steel bar attached to the mast base has a diameter of 15 mm, but the bit we have is too short so we will need a longer 15 mm bit.

Total work time to date: 789 hours

Mast step (2)

Two hours of work today to give the mast step the right profile using electric planer, Surforms, rasps and rotoorbital sander with 40 grit. 

 

Total work time to date: 788 hours

Mast step (1)

We now have to find a way to install the mast base on the vaka. The mast base is this

 Given the particular shape of the base, we have decided to build a plywood step starting with two squares of 20 mm thick plywood, 10 cm x 10 cm each. We then glued the two pieces with thickened resin

When the glue sets, we will give this a proper shape...

Total work time to date: 786 hours

Rudder mechanism

We spent three hours in this weekend to build the rudder mechanism as specified in the plans. To be honest I don't like it very much. We'll see how it works.

The system is based on a so-called "false transom" which is hinged to the transom at the deck level, on the vaka. The rudder's pintles are bolted to the false transom. When sailing, the rudder is kept in the "low" position by means of a rope tied to the false transom, passing trough a eye-strap fixed on the transom and up, via two bulls eye fairleads, to a V-cleat on the aft aka. So, when the rope is completely pulled ad cleated, the rudder is supposed to stay in the water, while if the rope is taken off the cleat the rudder is set free in order to avoid problems if running aground.

The following photo shows the two bullseye fairleads on the vaka deck.

The next photo shows the eye strap on the transom.

Since we used thickened resin to reinforce the fasteners, we also coated all the carriage bolt holes to fasted the seats to the vaka deck. 

Total work time to date: 785 hours

Seats

Three hours of work today. We installed the akas on the vaka using the s/s eye bolts which we special ordered from the UK, and then the seats in order to bore the holes for the carriage bolts to secure each seat to the cockpit deck.

We had also planned to attach the amas, but it was a bit late so we decided to postpone it.

Total work time to date: 782 hours