Russell Eden made a new cap for his Cornish Yawl’s mizzen mast
S
torm Eleanor hit the south-
west of England during the
early hours of 3 January, as I
was tucked up in bed at home,
250 miles away. My Cornish Yawl,
Lucy, bore the brunt of it: the cord
holding the jib tight broke free and it
unfurled, flogging itself to destruction.
That, in turn, exerted maximum stress
to the shrouds and caused the mast top
instruments to come loose and damage
the finish, and the sprayhood was torn
off the frames as the 50-knot winds ripped
over the transom. The excellent staff at
Mylor Yacht Harbour made her safe when
they arrived early that morning, and then
emailed the bad news to me.
To avoid further damage the yawl rig
was removed and Lucy put back in her
berth, topless. The main mast was
damaged and needed stripping back and
refinishing with a new light and VHF
antenna, the shrouds and forestay had to
be replaced, and she needed a new sail
and sprayhood.
In amongst all this an opportunity arose
for me to do some much-needed varnish
maintenance to the bowsprit and mizzen
mast, so I took them home on the car
rooftop so I could work on them in the
comfort of my workshop.
I’d last attended to them in October
2013, when the bowsprit had a coat of
International Woodskin on top of whatever
was there before, and the mizzen was
stripped back and given a few coats of
Woodskin – but this never looked right. It
wasn’t until Spike at Mylor gave me the
specification they’d use on the main mast
that I realised my mistake. Here was the
chance to put it all right.
I stripped both spars back, but the
bowsprit was so pitted I had to use my
electric planer to take a millimetre off all
over and back to bare wood. Both wereRussell Eden’s Cornish Yawl Lucy suffered during the ravages of Storm Eleanorthen refinished with one coat of Sikkens
Cetol 077 HLS Plus, and two of 077 Filter
7 Plus, with outstanding results.
As I was about to put everything back
together I noted that the mizzen mast cap
was looking decidedly worse for wear. I
pondered patching it up, but quickly came
to my senses, for after 28 years of use a
replacement was in order.
The original was 18mm marine
plywood, which I didn’t have, but I had
offcuts of 6mm okoume marine plywood
from my Eastport Pram build: three layers
would do the trick.
As jobs go they don’t come much
easier. I used a handsaw, a pencil, a
jigsaw, clamps, a router, a sanding block,
and a small paint brush; these are some
of the most commonly used tools, and I
recommend having them to hand.(^1)
After 28 years aloft, and any number
of variants of lights and other
fittings, making it good wouldn’t look all
that good. Filling holes and cable runs
seemed like the wrong thing to do.
Replacing a mast cap
PRACTICAL
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Russell Eden’s first
boat was his boyhood
6ft inflatable dinghy.
He switched to
windsurfing in his
teens, and when his
sons came along he
bought them a Laser
Pico. A Laser 2000
arrived too, and 10 years of dinghy
racing and family sailing ensued before
the urge to travel further became a
priority. He bought a Cape Cutter 19
followed by Lucy, a 1990 Cornish Yawl.
Step
by
step