A change of pace

I have been working on the hull constantly for the past week or so, and my epoxy is not 100% cured from last evening, so I did something different today. It all works toward the same goal so no time lost. I pulled my mast, boom and gaff from the rack and began to work on them.

The gaff was first, being the smallest, if I messed anything up it would be not so much a problem to make a new one. I Made lines down the centers of each face and a line offset from each a distance I figured out as a guide to plane down the edge of the 6 faces. This Clamp being made of plastic has few uses for heavy stuff, but it's perfect for holding my items in place for planing and sanding.This would then make 12 smaller faces. each small face would in turn get one pass with the planer doubling the number of faces again. This would all then be rough sanded with my palm sander with a 60 grit, and progressively to a smaller grit. Making the lines took as long as actual planing. but the lines were necessary to keep a nice fair line the full length.The results were as I had hoped. I have yet to decide on the style of gaff jaws so the ends are unfinished. The Boom was done the same way. Though the boom is a different shape. I wanted strength but in not much larger diameter so I went with an ellipse of sorts.
Not to worry. It looks ratty when initially glued together, but knowing that it needs major shaping later the most important thing to look for is it being straight.

This is what I intended in my mind when I thought up the shape for the boom. COOL.

The points where I drill through the boom for the boom vang and main sheet blocks were center punched with the end of my dividers so i didn't loose my spot. Its where the backing blocks were installed inside. The outer end was rough sanded and to be finish sanded just before I epoxy it. The Mast once again was done in the same fashion, but over 18ft of it. A tight squeeze.

I made a taper at the top of the mast with a reduction in diameter by about 30%. Mostly with the planer and then working with the sanders. My evening ran short and it was time to clean up my huge mess. But I made some good progress today. I had so much time because I took the afternoon off. The sun shining in the shop made eyeballing the lengths much easier.I think it turned out well for my first go at building a mast, boom and gaff from scratch. The dimensions from Johns plans were enlarged in diameter where i'm using wood instead of aluminum with wood plugs in the ends.

It was a long day, but I enjoyed every minute. Something accomplished among the seemingly slow pace of hull work. I had allotted much more time to this phase so its good to have this part at least partially complete.
Time: 7 hr