With the boom primed and ready for topcoat, I’v opted to prep the mast so I can paint both spars together.
With the experience of working on the boom under my belt, things are going much quicker on the mast. Madsu’s stick is 25 feet 2 inches long.
After filling some old screw holes I sanded the entire mast down to bare metal. Tomorrow I’ll etch, condition and prime.
As with the boom, the hardest work was in getting the hardware off the mast. I was pretty luck and got most of the fittings off with little trouble. I did have to drill out 3 of the 9 screws used to fasten a 1 inch T-track on the forward end of the mast. You can see the corrosion on the machine screws in the photo below, as well as the remains of the screws I drilled out.
Madsu’s standing rigging is now taking a break – I guess it’s ‘sitting rigging’ for now.
I’m replacing the rope to wire halyards with all rope low stretch line. I’ve got a bit of work to do on the mast head fitting – there’s a new anchor light and windvane to attach, as well as swapping out the sheaves for the new halyards.
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