Mast and sprit boom

I ordered the wood for the mast blank from CLC boats. It was glued up from 3/4" x 2 1/4" planks. I then glued it up into a 2 1/4" x 2 1/4" x 16'3" long spar. I then tapered the blank on 3 sides to form the mast.

























Next day: Potential disaster averted. When I checked the cured mast I noticed that the last 4 foot section glued on was out of plane. I did not have a straight mast blank! I'm not sure how this happened. Maybe I accidentally kicked it while working on the rest of the boat? Maybe I was working on an uneven floor? I don't know. Eventually I realized I had a solution due to the plans call for the mast to taper. I had enough extra wood at the taper to fix the problem. Instead of cutting the taper to the middle of the mast, I could cut it all on 1 side. So the final mast and taper were straight even though my mast blank was not. In the picture below, the chalk lines are not centered in the warped blank. Even though the blank is warped , the chalk lines are not.





The cured mast needed to have both ends tapered on 3 sides. I did this with a hand held power planar. By the time I had finished I was ankle deep in wood chips. Then I rounded over the edges with a block plane and as usual sanded.

Mast installed for the first time.






















The boom was built in a similar manner.