It's been bugging me for two years since I finished my Wampum II Vintage Marblehead RC sailboat... the rig was too high. The rig just didn't look right. Looked too "toy boatish" even though it is a toy boat. So today I finally stopped staring at it and cut 1.125" off the bottom of the mast. Then I redid all the stays and such. It looks better now. Will try to get it on the water in the next week or three to see how it sails. It's a little hard to see in these pictures, but the boat looks a lot better now. Phew! Cheers! 

While I'm waiting for the 6th coat of varnish to harden on the hull, I've started to varnish the mast. Yes, I'm an idiot for not varnishing the mast all along with the six coats on the hull! But I managed to get one coat on so far. Today I cut the slot for the mast crane, fitted the crane, and drilled two holes for through-bolts. Next, I'll remove the mast crane and return to varnishing the mast. Notice too that I soldered a brass tube to the mast crane. It is to hold a wind indicator that I'll make shortly. Should work well... I hope! More later. Aloha!

Made a mast crane based on one that I have made in the past for my Star 45's. Works well for them, and should work well for a Vintage Marblehead Sun Wind. It's made from brass, with a bar for strength soldered to the top. The idea is that a slot will be cut into the top 2" of the mast, and the crane will be through-bolted. This link is to the original schematic of a mast crane that you can build yourself, courtesy of the Miami Valley Model Yacht Club in Ohio.  Here is my updated version. Click to see the full-sized image and then copy and paste it into Word. It "should" print at just about the correct size, but you may have to adjust the image a bit. Cut it out and spray glue it to some brass sheet. Cut it out on a band-saw and then sand smooth. Be careful when working with tools and metals!! This is what I ended up with for my Sun Wind HF. I decided to reinforce the crane with a length of brass bar soldered to the top edge. Back to deck pl...

This morning I unclamped my mast blank, only to find that I had not put enough tape into the corner. The blank had adhered to the aluminum angle. Ugh! After some work, I was finally able to pry it off, but in the process had ripped a pretty good sized chunk out of the blank. However, after milling it down, I was able to cut that all off and now have a nice stick to use. I also learned that I should have paid more attention to the bow in each strip, and flipped them alternatively to try to take that out. My mast blank has a slight bow to it. It will be easy for the upper and lower shrouds and spreaders to take care of, but it would have been nice to not have it at all. Aloha!

In my previous boats, I've always used an aluminum mast (and a carbon fiber one on the Tippecanoe T37). For this Vintage Marblehead High Flyer Sun Wind II though, in keeping with the tradition of the 1940's/1950's, I thought it would be fun to attempt a wooden mast. This is my first try! People on the innertubes seem to agree that spruce is the best. So I went to my local lumber yard (NOT a big box place either... but one that knows wood better), and bought two sticks of what they said was spruce. However, once I started milling it, I'm now not totally sure what I bought. I think that it probably is spruce, but after reading online about the differences, it may actually be pine. Even if it is pine, at least one smart guy online says that he prefers it for his mast anyway. So... whatever! I'm calling it spruce. It has some very small knots in it, and is very whitish. The pine I've used in the past has been a bit more yellow. I milled out 8' strips that ...