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Figments and Phragmites

Building Spark

Mast and Boom are finished!

30/9/2018

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After many long days of work, stripping the spars of their hardware, sanding them down to bare wood, repairing splits and holes, ordering new hardware, and varnishing, I have finally completed the Mast and Boom. It was not an easy task and my hands are bruised from putting many screws into the wood.

One of the things that I noticed, that I thought I would hate, is the contrast between Spark's original stamped aluminum hardware and the new bronze screws and items. Bronze against polished aluminum looks wonderful and I am going to have to rethink about going all bronze in the future.

One thing that did save my behind on several occasions was my habit of ordering more than I needed. a year ago I bought a lot of One Hundred #8 bronze screws and decorative washers. I think I bought them for Flirt, my SeaSprite 12, but I could be wrong. In this regard, I used quite a few in putting all the hardware back on. These screws also use a specialized and very out of fashion screwdriver, the Frearson. While it looks a lot like a Phillips head, but it is much shallower with angled blades for a better "bite" on the screw when driving. I understand why Popeye has such oversized forearms now, he evidently was a boatbuilder before he became a sailor.

If you read the post on the sheaves, you can see here how they look against the lighter wood of the mast..
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