Schooner Repair

Schooner Repair

I found a soft spot in the wood around the mast step of our wooden Light Schooner. Of course it is not an easy spot to work on and there was no way you could work on it in the water. So out of the water the little boat came. It sat on the trailer for a few weeks before I made up my mind to work on it. I was not looking forward to see what I might find.

Of course you could not work on the area I needed to on the trailer. 8-(  I had to block it up and slide the trailer out from under it. The boat does not seem as large in the water.  I figured the car port would be cool and dry to work on it. The boat took up the full length of the carport and had about 10’ hanging out the opening. Then when you added the trailer pulled ½ way out from under it, the boat and the trailer took up most of the drive way as well as the carport. There was just room for our other vehicles without them being in the road. 

My wife is cool. 8-) She just looked at the set up and asked how long it will be this way. I shrugged and gave a non-committal only a few days.

The couple next door has been trying to sell their house for about 3 years. It is a nice house but it is WAY over priced but they will not lower the price. They complain on anything that they think will lessen the value of the house.  Me working on the boat will upset them I am sure.

I found the soft spot was worse than I had thought. Water had collected at and in the pocket hole where the mast seated. I had a vision of sailing along and the mast dropping through the bottom of the boat. 

The repair has taken longer than I had thought it would but the end is now in sight. The mast will be about 2” higher which should be no big deal. I will re varnish the bright work before she goes back in the water. She should be ship shape with in the week. I am sure wife and others will be happy with that. We have not had any comments from the others which have been totally unexpected. They were boaters also so maybe they thought it was a pull out for yearly maintenance. 8-)

By tradition when you step a boats mast you put a coin under the mast. When I pulled the mast step off I found the coin. I had used a Gold Readers Digest Promo Coin that looked like a Gold Dollar. I had a Susan B Anthony dollar under the other mast. (The other mast step is just fine.) I guess you get what you pay for in mast coins. I am going to use another S.B. Anthony this time as well as the Readers Digest coin for more luck. 8-)