Seahawk P113

Hi Greg and all. I saw your post an pictures of Seahawk broads number P113. I am now the owner of this boat. I purchased it at the end of last season. It was named tadpole but has been renamed Nancy Blackett. I spent the winter doing some vital maintenance work and she is now afloat on my mooring at Wayford on the River Ant. The mast has now been returned to a quick release mechanism to enable cruising everywhere on the Broads. The interior has been repainted and re varnished and has some new bunk cushions. Still looks very bare but have more work to do there.
I have only sailed her 3 times so far and each occasion as ended in a minor disaster, my sailing skills are very limited but am learning more each time. I have experimented with a Barton Jib furling system as this was bequeathed to me with the boat. This hasn't been very succesfull to date but am working on it.
Sail number ( if original ) is either 396 or 369, am having a temporary senior moment!!!!!
I bought a new Yamaha 2.5 hp outboard for her as I thought my Mercury 6hp would be too heavy and I didn't want external tanks in the cockpit. The Yamaha pushes her along well but I haven't encountered any real tides etc yet.
Will post some pictures when I have mastered this computer thingy.
Best wishes to all, hope to meet some of you over the summer !!

Hi skanker56,

I'm also relatively new to sailing and new to Seahawk ownership. I've just moored my Leda at Horning and I've taken her out for a cruise on the outboard, but I haven't sailed her yet (for fear of minor disasters!!!!). I'm intrigued by your mast quick release as my boat has the standard mast step so I'm considering at some point fitting a tabernacle like Greg's. If you get a chance to post some pictures, I for one will be studying them intently. It'd be good to meet up at some point and compare notes, and disaster avoidance!!

Cheers,


waterville

Hi all,

So I am the owner of piccolo, and am also looking at converting her back to a tabernacle mast. I've found someone who can fabricate the tabernacle for me, but need a couple of extra dimensions still (perhaps they'd give a discount for two if you are interested, Waterville) but I am still a bit lost on the mast itself.

Is it aluminium, and so I need someone to weld an aluminium tube into it? Are there any other options that involve riveting something instead? Just not sure how to proceed.

At least with the mast foot, I think I can get a friend to fabricate a replacement from block nylon, which should reduce rubbing and work as well as tufnol or steel.

Any advice or ideas, please let me know.

Thanks

Perry

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Hi Perry,

I don’t think I’ll be doing anything for  a few months – I’ve only just got the boat on the water, and I’m a great “planner”!!

As regards the mast, I think Greg has actually gone through the process, so can better answer your questions. I found this website considering the question of welding, specifically because of Greg’s mast…

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?217080-Converting-a-mast-to-a-tabernacle

The thinking seems to be that a tube is not required as there is no side to side crush load on the mast. There is, though, a concern that drilling the pivot bolt hole will weaken the structure of the mast. If this is the case, then that can be fixed by either welding a tube; or by riveting a strengthening plate around the pivot bolt holes. (There’s also a debate about whether you want to bolt through the cabin roof, or just screw into it.)

The final thing I’d say is that, depending on how you intend to rig your forestay, a useful safety feature would be some way of locking the open side of the tabernacle. An obvious way would be with just a loop of rope around the base so that, if the forestay becomes loose, the mast won’t come clattering down into the cockpit. This loop could be untied/slipped up the mast when the mast needs to be dropped. Maybe something to consider at the tabernacle design stage.

Cheers,

waterville

Ha, I'm a planner too. I bought piccolo with the intention of renovating over the space of a year, then my wife got pregnant. Now its a 5 year project!

I'll ask Greg, and try and keep a log of what I do. I like the idea of the safety feature....maybe a gate or something, perhaps a pin the go in front of the base, would be easy to add.

I think it will be a good few years before I am done, but I spend the time I can't work on the boat (eg feeding, bathing and changing the baby) planning the work, and decided to try gather all the bits I want together first, so as soon as I can, I'll do the lot in a blast.

Will let you know if/when I get the tabernacle made, and how it goes. Very interested to see how it works out in the end.

Good luck

Perry

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