Up here on the pier.

The hope is that the mast will be the last piece of the refit project's work to be accomplished here at Nelsons.

Glen of Hansen Rigging looked the mast over when it came out. So far it seems to be in ok shape. The rods are pretty old and there were signs of corrosion at the spreader tips..

Better safe than sorry, I ordered up a new set of rods from Glen. Then I busied myself with pulling all the bits off the mast for cleanup and rebedding.

Allen, if your out there somewhere reading this; That sail tape, all 10,000 wraps of it, was still holding on, strong as the day you wrapped it twelve years ago! And let me tell you, it was a bear cutting/peeling that sticky stuff off!

One of the less corroded parts. All of the metal mast hardware was causing corrosion like this.

Also, all of the plastic bits were going brittle..

So off it all came.

The mast, nearly stripped of all its fiddlybits. The battery powered drill went dead, as did the kiddies. So this is as far as we got before heading home for the day.

Never having much experience working on masts, Glen's been giving me pointers on how to do the different tasks. Like, how does one remove pop rivets? What's the best penetrating spray? Best bedding compound? Where to look for corrosion, etc. I just hope I can remember where all the pieces go. Its always easier to strip stuff down than to reassemble and actually get something working again.

Clean up and spot paint the problem areas? Or, just strip the entire thing and get it a complete fresh coat of paint?

I don't know. Decisions Decisions..

Cracked Gooseneck.

The goosenecks on these boats are really built beefy. Looking at them, one would get the impression that they would last forever. But no, in this case the gooseneck casting is beginning to fail. Looking closely one can see a crack running from bottom to about 2/3 of the way to the top.

Yet another boat part on the list..

Georgie!!

It takes quite a few people to run a boatyard the size of Nelsons. People working in the yard, people painting in the shop, people running around doing, I don't know what.. If you peek into the office, who do you think you'll find controlling the nerve center, Hmm? That's right, Georgie!

Being at the head of the nerve center makes Georgie a little intimidating. But, she can be a lot of fun!

Now, if you find yourself in the position of attempting to bribe the nerve center.. I'm not saying you'd get anywhere trying it; But for best results, I'd try offering Banderlog Chocolate Bombers. :-)