winter project - Yardarm

[SelahWay]

I am a new owner of a 1980 36' DC. I had stripped as much off her to refinish over the winter and while scrapping, sanding, repainting the mast/boom it occured to me that a yardarm would be a nice addition .... flags, deck lights, etc. Problem is that I can't find any plans for fabricating a wooden one. I have some concepts but am tossing it out to those who have one for dimensions, hardware, detailed photos, etc.

[DCatSea]

I have attached a few pix of a mast I built for our 27FC last year, for burgees, running light, and other things that need to be flown.

PM me if you want to talk about construction tricks.

703 447 4706
Doug

[rebuckley]

I had started playing with the idea on our 36, but instead of wood - I had been looking at using PVC pipe. It is already white, and the tube would allow for running wires etc. I have not picked it up again yet (and the mast is covered under the plastic now - so will get it going in the spring again.

[WillieC]

I am interested in how y'all do the wiring.
DCatSea, I see your use of marine cable but can't quite make out your top entry/leak proof penetration. Is that cable rated for UV exposure? Not that I am interested in letter perfect code compliance, just actual use.

Also, the cheap-o perk-o mast light I have has 6 inch leads that keep getting shorter, adding another splice to the circuit I would just as soon avoid. Any suggestions for a better fixture with real terminals? Right now I am using a pex (yes, residential plumbing) tube and staggering the splices inside it. I have also installed a terminal strip right under the lid, for ease of mast removal. "Ease" is relative. I am the guy who removed and reinstalled the old VP engine with bottle jack, come-along, and ramp. Easy-peasy.

My yardarm is fixed, so the pex works pretty good. I want to move toward a hinged unit similar to DCatSea's, simplicity being key. We came pretty close to needing a hinged unit last summer at the Swinomish Channel railroad bridge, which is rarely ever closed. Fortunately our antenna has the breakaway mounting, that actually broke away without busting. All these goofy penetrations tend to leak. Of course, since mine is 'temporary' until I come up with a real plan, I'm going easy on sealants.

Originally, the yardarm, being laminated, had an internal groove for wiring. Wood, being what it is, opened up with years of deferred maintenance and that internal groove was the main leak source. I see epoxy coating and varnish as the final solution to that issue.

I should mention that the light in use is white only, dual purpose for night running and stationary anchor light. It never was wired properly with the correct multi-pole switch, not unlike one or two other items on the boat as purchased. Details, details.

In the meantime, we use the light for night/low light running, forward illumination only, and have a separate LED 360* anchor light with photocell that plugs into the cigarette lighter, I forget the manufacture. Very nice for leaving the boat on our mooring ball for extended periods without worrying about battery drain.

Keep up the posts. We'll come up with a good plan yet.

[DCatSea]

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Thanks for some great ?s WillieC,

Most of the mast was made from bits lying around in my garage/workshop. Just bought the wood (1/2" x 6" oak, cheapo perko light and the through fixture). Garage supplied sealers, nuts, bolts, washers, epoxy, stain varnish, cable, ties and s/s hooks for hanging burgees etc. I also invested in a free hanging LED anchor light which plugs into a 12v outlet at the helm.

Regarding size, this is an arbitrary dimension dependent on size of vessel and personal needs.

The cable is bog-standard West Marine 2-core. I took the liberty of painting it black (surely an ongoing task if ever there was one) for aesthetic purposes. I overcame the cable channel issue by just using an appropriate number of black cable ties (zip-ties) to secure the cable to the mast. Regarding the tails in the Perko, I just removed them and did a connection straight to the new cable.

The body of the mast is made of two lengths of 1/2" oak glued together, the crossyard, button and base are singles. The whole is clamped, stained, and has 3 coats of spar varnish. If it becomes apparent that a more substantive solution is needed I will take the appropriate measures, but I don't expect any problems. Shaping involved a powered jigsaw, spokeshave and sandpaper. (Went through a couple of good blades.) The crossyard, not shown on diag.) is cut to fit, and mitred to the upright at a "trial and error" angle.

The hinge mechanism is very simple (he said, after much trial and error for the curve on the aft edge - see diagram). a 5/16" SS bolt holds the mast to the base, with an inside and outside washer on each side, and a 'wodge' of lithium grease to ease things along. The break-away is a 1/4" pine dowel, with a red-painted piece of broom handle drilled and glued to the dowel (Also greased).

I hope the attached hand-drawn diagram helps, but please PM me if you have ?s.

[DCatSea]

Just realized - I didn't show the connection of the button (bit on top) to the upright. Just glued and s/s screwed.

Also - I wonder if an appropriate length ratio would be 1:9 LOA; so your 36 would get a 4 foot mast.

[WillieC]

"very simple (he said, after much trial and error for the curve on the aft edge - see diagram)" sounds like me.

Ha! It's ALL simple after it's all done! Great drawing, thanks for the details.

[DesertAlbin736]

The only thing I might have done differently would be to use Mahogony or Iroko instead of oak. Both those exotic woods hold up better than oak. I had used white oak for the first iteration of the name boards I made to mount on the sides of the wheelhouse, and they did not hold up well. After just a couple years I had to make new ones out of Mahogony. Second, I'd go with 2 or 3 coats of spar varnish over a couple coats of epoxy resin, using special clear hardener. Just make sure to seal all parts of the wood with the epoxy so moisture doesn't get to the wood. Makes it much easier to maintain & gives a really sharp looking finish. This piece was refinished almost 2 years ago, although I remove & store it during hot summer months if we're not out cruising somewhere.

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Or did I misread the notation in the drawing about "glued & epoxied"? Is the varnish over an undercoating of epoxy? Otherwise, nicely done. I wonder though, since it's a laminated piece would it have been possible to router grooves up the center between boards to make a channel in order to conceal the wires for the anchor light on top?

[DCatSea]

I figured that oak was good enough for Nelson, and Victory is still in commission so hopefully this mast will outlive me.
Thanks for the point out - I actually used Gorilla Wood glue, not epoxy, to stick the two planks together, then stained and put an initial 3 coats of spar-varnish over the whole thing.
If it does succumb to the elements while I'm still around I will use an exotic-er wood and just use a single chunk (no laminations).
I like the idea of removing for storage, but may just run up a canvas cover to snap over it in extreme weather, likewise roof handrails.

I gave my router away about four years ago (occasionally wish I hadn't)

[DesertAlbin736]

We are fortunate that we have a Woodworkers Source store in town that carries all sorts of exotic hardwoods. Marine grade plywood is hard to come by though. I have purchased marine grade Okeume teak veneer plywood from Harbor Sales over on the Eastern Shore of MD in the past. They have a lot of good stuff, though pretty expensive.

[DCatSea]

Only last year did I finally use the last of the marine ply I had dumpster dived from Weaver Boat builders trash pile. Mazboot was on the hard opposite their dumpster, and there was a ton of offcuts for the taking. Wish I had grabbed a bunch more, but I got what I needed so all was well.

[SelahWay]

I've been kind of busy with refurbishing everything we stripped and finslly got back to this item. Since we can't raise the mast in the bassement, I had to guess on how wide to make it. Decided on a 5' spread. I cut a demo out of 1" pine, the final will probably be out of 5/4 oak and painted with awlgrip as the mast/boom were. We are going to wait for splash to do the final fitting. When I cut the pattern, I realized I made the overlap too short and sharp. Final pic shows the cut I'll use on the splice around the mast. It will rest on the upper collar and screwed into mast.

Pics are in reverse order ....