Yesterday I filled in the small flaws in the birdsmouth mast. Today the epoxy is still too soft to sand. Today I am going to start work on the Masthead plug with the sheave.
The sheave is in the upper right of the photo.
I have read a lot on the internet about stuffing your hollow mast/spars with crumpled aluminum foil so your small boat will show up on radar.
What the heck??, I buy four boxes of heavy-duty aluminum foil at the dollar store.
I use a left-over piece of aluminum pipe to stuff the foil into the hollow of the mast. I will need to leave room for the Masthead plug tail and the plug for the bottom of the mast. About 18″ for the masthead, about 24″ for the mast base. I stuff from both ends of the mast. I use a broom handle to gauge how far the foil is stuffed in.
Well, I now have ≈ 75 square feet of crumpled aluminum foil in the centre of my birdsmouth mast. I wonder if it will work, and give Gwragedd Annwn a good radar reflection.
I am so enthused with this idea that I will take my yardarm, hollow out the middle, stuff with aluminum foil and re-glue. Probably I will only be able to get 35 square feet or so of crumpled aluminum foil in the yardarm…but, hey, the more foil the better! Tomorrow’s project.
Mike