Up the stick

The view from above! I have to admit it's hard to fully relax up here and enjoy the scenery completely. We have some practice with heights from our mountaineering background, but unlike a mountainside the mast is in constant motion. It shudders and sways and makes me suspect that Wecantu is feeling a little restless and dreams of sailing.

Boomkin project part 2

The restored boomkins were put back on this past weekend. It was a much easier project than the bowsprit.

Boomkin project

Our current project is the boomkins. They were painted over grey, and we'd rather have the actual wood showing. We took the boomkins home and sanded them down. The wood is good with no rot, so we are treating them with several coats of cetol. (Wecantu currently has a rustic looking, temporary boomkin setup made of 2x4s from Home Depot. Rather unseaworthy, but she is being very patient about the whole process...)

We will also be replacing the stainless steel boomkin crosspiece.

The rudder cheeks look pretty bad in this photo too, but we sanded and cetoled those earlier this summer.

Bowsprit project part 2

New sprit, Doug fir. Sampson posts are fir as well.

Finished! This project took several months to accomplish.

Both sampson posts and bowsprit were cut down from larger pieces using less than ideal tools for the job.

The bowsprit platform wood was re-used after a thorough cleaning. All wood is coated with natural teak Cetol.

Note the absence of the jib boom. We wanted to get rid of it anyway, but mother nature helped us out a bit. (Things tend to break in strong winds...)

Bowsprit project

Boomkin and platform before replacing.

Note white jib boom.

Mid-project, point of no return...

Some rot was found at tip of sprit under eyeband.

The black stuff on top of the sprit is a caulking that was under the windlass.

No deck rot found!