by tomodda » Fri Jul 16, 2021 6:54 pm
Hi Harbourman!
Welcome to the forum and congrats on your new (to you) DaySailer! Congrats also with walking away from your first major sailing mishap with no major damage to you or the boat. All is well, and better to get it (fear of breaking stuff) out of the way right off the bat.
OK, so deep breath! On a Daysailer, like most stayed marconi rigs, the stays are there to hold the sails up, the mast is there for pretty and to give the stays someplace to attach to on the top end. So don't worry about the chip in the bottom of the aluminum tube, that's cosmetic and also sitting in a place that has no real stress on it, below the rivets. I joke about the mast being decorative, but the fact is that it's mostly in compression: the stays pull it down into the bottom of the boat (mast step on the keelson), the side to side and fore/aft forces ON THE MAST are minimal, relatively speaking. Force ON THE STAYS is another story, they're carrying the force of the wind on the sails to your hull. So, you just have to make sure that there is a decent connection between the top and bottom parts of your mast, so that the compression force (downwards) doesn't go off somewhere else besides directly down to your mast step at the bottom of the boat. Got it?
So, let's discuss what looks broken. As I wrote, don't worry about the chip in the heel of the top part of the mast. The forces from mast to tabernacle are carried by the rivets holding the the dark grey "shoe" at the bottom of the mast, which screws to the tabernacle (the bolts you bent). Obviously, you need a new tabernacle, I have a spare if your local marine store tries to gouge you. More importantly, you chipped the back of the "shoe." Is there enough "meat" left on it to make a good connection between the shoe and bolt? In theory, you could get away with just the one bolt (the forward one), but it's good to have belt and suspenders (i.e. I wouldn't sail with just the one). If there isn't enough left of the aft hole in the shoe, can you get a good grip for the aftmost bolt using a washer (above the shoe)? If the answer is no to the above, then I'm afraid you'll need a new "shoe" ... talk to Rudy at D&R. Replacing the shoe will involve removing the old rivets and putting on new rivets, Greenlake can guide you better than I. I THINK I might have those shoes in my odd parts box, they don't fit my mast and may not fit yours. We can cross that bridge when we get there.
Lastly, let me share my mast raising method with you. Took me a while to figure out, but USE THE JIB HALYARD! I connect the top of the mast to the bottom using just the rear pin, leaving me with a forward facing "hinge", I'm sure you do the same. But then I take the Jib Halyard and clip it to the stem fitting... same place where the forestay goes, clip it on the same way you'd normally clip it to the head of the jib, but clip it to the AFT hole in the stem fitting. Then put the mast up while pulling DOWN on the jib halyard, same as if you were raising the jib, but instead you're raising the mast. Remember, you MUST secure both side stays before you raise the mast (ask me how I know that...). The mast itself is quite light, around 40 lbs, the problem is the 20 feet of moment arm (leverage)! So use the jib halyard to deal with the moment arm. In practice, I raise the mast one handed to my shoulder and then push it up into position with my body and only use the jib halyard to snug down the mast before next steps. But when I was weaker (I've been on a long road of recovery from health problems), I'd walk the mast up from aft forward and yank it up the last 3 feet or so with the halyard, it's a big help! Now that the mast is up, snug the jib halyard down as much as you can (pull it TIGHT). Sweat it! (look up sweating a halyard, basically you pull it sideways at the base of the mast). Once it's good and snug, then it's acting the same as your forestay, you can let go of the mast! Put the forward pin in the tabernacle. Now take the forestay and clip it to the FORWARD hole on the stem fitting. If you snugged the halyard down enough, there should be no pressure, you wont have to pull on the stay at all to the pin thru. If you did not snug it down enough, you can usually "sweat" the jib halyard at the stemhead, deflect it with your elbow to take up that critical last inch. You'll see what I mean once you do it (practice at home!). And that's it, once the forestay is secure you can loose the jib halyard in preparation for attaching it to the head of your jib. My next step in rigging the boat is, in fact, to hank on the jib then take the jib halyard shackle off the stemhead and onto the jib. attach my sheets and the jib's done! You'll get the hang of it.
OK, let us know how your tabernacle repair goes. Good luck!
Tom