Mizzen ROT repair
So, last fall I was gazing upward and noticed what looked like "rot" on the starboard side of our mizzen mast. Bummer. It was near an unused radar mount.
We unstepped the mast and set it on the deck. My plan was that if it was down, I could work on it slowly and have it all fixed up before the summer season arrived. I didn't quite have a grasp on what "slowly" was going to mean. Life gets in the way and things moved along at a slugs pace.
First I had to dig out the rotted spruce. I ended up with a section that was about 7 feet long. It was oddly shaped but that would make the scarfed in spruce stronger.
I sanded down all the loose paint and did some smaller repairs here and there. The foot of the mast had a ferw soft spots that were easy to fix.
I finally got everything sanded and after several coats of primer, I am getting ready to start painting.
I will be adding a VHF antenna, and an alternate anchor light to the mast head. When the mast was built, they included a tube running through the mast, but did NOT have an exit hole at the masthead. I had to do some experimental drilling to find a good place for the exit. The tube only went near the top, so I can access it easily.
Like all older Formosa's, the mizzen was slowly sinking into the aft cabin top. I decided to re-enforce the mast support under the aft cabin top. This will allow me to properly tune my mizzen rigging finally!
I am concidering a hard top for the aft deck. I am just in the planning stage now, but I will need to raise the mizzen boom to accomodate the hard top, and me standing at the helm. I will need to do some concept testing to see if this will even work. Standby for more on that project.
During all of this, I also ripped out the old 3rd generation galley counter top. I had origanally used a hardwood butcherblock from Ikea. It did not last long in the marine environment. Then I got the crazy idea to make a countertop imbedded with beachglass. Very cool, but the stuff I used to cover it allowed water in and it failed...sooo, now we have a proper tiled countertop that will last and it looks way better. We also installed a new, larger sink. Much better!
