I could no longer put off wooding the boom. A few glue seams had let go and water was getting inside.
Plus the main sheet fiddle block shackle had nearly worn through the bronze rolling end fitting. The fitting, as well as the original lower fiddle block(I'm missing the upper South Coast fiddle, anyone know of one available?) bronze eye and bronze loop on the track car, had nearly parted. I took those to the metal magician at Rockport Marine. He can fix them!
Back to the boom,... I nearly injected a quart of West epoxy into the boom until I realized, the blasted thing is hollow. I rolled the quart of epoxy around and coated the inside(I'm convinced it needed that).
Some prying at the ends, some strategic tiny holes drilled for epoxy syringes, and it's as strong as new now.
I deduced by the fact that most of the original screws in the bronze sail track snapped off one other time, as they did when I removed the track, that it's been about 25 years since the first wooding took place(the only reason the track would have been removed). Makes sense. The boom lives under cover most of it's life.
I used pairs of S hooks and old Vee belts to hang the boom(from large headed screws in the ends) at a comfortable height for varnishing. Easy, eye level, spin with one hand, brush with the other.
I also wooded the deck box and made a few minor repairs.
And I finally got around to building new hand rails. It's been 10 years since I removed the old ones that were beyond repair.
Plus the main sheet fiddle block shackle had nearly worn through the bronze rolling end fitting. The fitting, as well as the original lower fiddle block(I'm missing the upper South Coast fiddle, anyone know of one available?) bronze eye and bronze loop on the track car, had nearly parted. I took those to the metal magician at Rockport Marine. He can fix them!
Back to the boom,... I nearly injected a quart of West epoxy into the boom until I realized, the blasted thing is hollow. I rolled the quart of epoxy around and coated the inside(I'm convinced it needed that).
Some prying at the ends, some strategic tiny holes drilled for epoxy syringes, and it's as strong as new now.
I deduced by the fact that most of the original screws in the bronze sail track snapped off one other time, as they did when I removed the track, that it's been about 25 years since the first wooding took place(the only reason the track would have been removed). Makes sense. The boom lives under cover most of it's life.
I used pairs of S hooks and old Vee belts to hang the boom(from large headed screws in the ends) at a comfortable height for varnishing. Easy, eye level, spin with one hand, brush with the other.
I also wooded the deck box and made a few minor repairs.
And I finally got around to building new hand rails. It's been 10 years since I removed the old ones that were beyond repair.
