Mast base and V-cleat

 Cinzia had worked for one more hour in the past weeks to give the tiller two more coats.

Today we worked one more hour to install the mast base on the stem aka and the V-cleat on the aft aka.

For the mast base we glued the wooden step on the stern aka using thickened epoxy and tightened the nut underneath. Also, we screwed the mast step on the streamlined wooden base with four self-tapping s/s screws. For the V-cleat (used for the rudder lifting mechanism) we simply used two self tapping s/s screws after coating the pre-bored holes with epoxy.

Total work time to date: 803 hours

Painting the tiller

 After a very long period of time here we are back to finish this boat. Today we sanded and gave one coat of grey enamel to the tiller, ingeniously hung to the kitchen cabinets

 Total work time to date: 801 hours

Mast base installation (4)

 This stuff turned out to be very tricky. Today and the past saturday we worked for three hours. We glued a 3-mm thick layer of rubber to the mast base support, and then dry-installed everything. 

Total work time to date: 800 hours!

Coating with epoxy, and more

Two hours of work today for coating the tiller, the mast base support and the hole for its bolt with clear epoxy.

 

 

Moreover, we managed to find an aluminum tiller extension, which we embellished with a clear plastic cork :-)

Total work time to date: 797 hours

Tiller

Only one hours of work today. We had various discussions on how to install the mast base, and then we turned to the tiller and made the hole to bolt it to the rudder head

Then we made two holes to bolt the universal joint for the tiller extension. The photo shows it with a 15 mm diameter wooden stick, but we will use an aluminum tube.

 Total work time to date: 795 hours

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