New Mast Under Way

Since our old mast was damaged (we had a not-so-smart day on the water) we're getting a new one through Cape Cod Shipbuilding. In addition to making the new boats (same way as 40 years ago!) they're also the sole supplier of Shields masts.

Wendy at Cape Cod has been really helpful to us as we've gone through the Shields restoration process, and I was glad that we finally had an order to justify all her time! She was also kind enough to send some neat photos of the mast being built.

Here you see the bottom couple feet of the mast. The exit blocks are for the below deck exits for the halyards, and the ring further up the mast is the boom vang bail. We were going to go with a more-modern spectra strap for the vang, but the bail suits me better since I can lead lines down either side of it to make it below deck
Took me a second or 2 to figure out that this was the masthead. The cutout is for the main halyard exit box, which I think is a Schaefer 34-35. You can see the welds that hold the tapered tip of the mast together. The taper is formed by cutting the mast on both sides, in a curved wedge (thicker at top, thinner at bottom) The front and back of the mast are pushed back together, and then welded.

After it's all wedled together,they clean up the welds and voila! Taper.
More updates as they come, and we'll be doing our superboom soon, in the new CYR shop!