Day 216

I'm not really sure what these things we're putting in are called, but they are to lean against while working with the sails near the mast!
They're sort of like standalone stancions in a way, and must be strong enough to support a lot of weight. The elbows and T's are made of stainless, purchased, but the little setscrew in them is hardly enough to prevent them from pulling out. There should be more in my opinion, but then this is an unconventional use. We purposely spread the footings apart to create some stress and rigidity to them. Because of that they are pretty tough to put on too!
In the end, we decided to weld them together carefully and smooth them off. They came out looking just fine, and way stronger.

The center mount had to be built up on one side with a wedge of SS under the outside edge. These only come as 90º or 45º. We had to redo one because it warped the plate pretty badly without a wedge. What a mess it made!

I just said "take it off..." It had to be redone. Gena was not a happy camper.

We have heard of builders ( well one anyway ) that had taken a section of aluminum pipe and used wood clamps to squeeze it into an oval for a mast. I had great faith in this idea until today. For the mast lip I used a length of stainless flatbar bent carefully into a nice circle. The gap was welded closed and I proceeded to put it into the old cutoff saw stand to crush it into an oval shape (below).
NO WAY!

It was solid. I used 3 steel clamps to try the same. No way again. The clamps just bent instead!
The circle is a very strong shape, even at only 2" x ¼"
I was totally unable to budge it more then 1/2" after it popped back out. I realise that stainless and aluminum are very different in their "spring" charactaristics, but this has really made me wonder.

I ended up pounding it with a hammer on concrete to get the shape we needed. Lucky it's going to be under a hood hey?

Gena welded it in for me.

Blog:
Before this summer, we had to pop out the portlight temporary windows ever time we needed to weld something outside because the welder is inside...and is a bugger to get out through the cockpit. As a result we ended up breaking or cracking badly about half of them, now a constant leaking problem. At this point we have so many holes in the cabintop, hatches mushrooms, mast, that we can weld almost anywhere outside. Unfortunately, there isn't a whole lot left up there to weld. To add insult to injury, the boards covering all these holes soak up water when it rains, and now they're dripping inside!

I plan on putting some closed cell sealing-tape on the wood to prevent this. At least to stop snow blowing under them in the winter while we're doing the interior.