The mast I had bought as a kit some time previously and stored in my long back garden. The kit consisted of an aluminium extrusion 50 foot long and a box full of bits to be bolted and rivetted on. In the autumn of 1995 I got a group of friends round and lifted the mast on to trestles to be at a comfortable working height. After carefully reading the rather sparse instructions I set to work at first carefully marking out, and then with drill, jigsaw and files, carefully cutting the slot to take the masthead casting.

This is the mast in my back garden - it shows the upper/forward part of the masthead casting in place

The more difficult task however was to bolt on the spreader brackets. Five bolts on each of the four spreader brackets had to be inserted through small holes in the front face of the mast into the bolt holes from the inside of the mast for the washers and nuts to be fitted and tightened on the outside. This required planning and care. The other difficult task was inserting the electrical conduit. This took the form of split plastic tube which slid (with some difficulty) over a “nib” on the inside of the mast extrusion. This task was achieved with a great deal of pulling and heaving with the mast tied with rope to the tree at the bottom of the garden at one stage, and at another stage tied to the front garden wall pillar at the other end.

During the winter of ‘95-’96 I continued with the fitting out below decks. I had got the basics of a forecabin and would soon have the cockpit watertight, and I built the galley. I acquired a quantity of oak with which I built the saloon berths. There was much precision carpentry and jigsawing of plywood.

This is the Taylors 030 paraffin cooking stove fitted into the galley on its gimballs

The question of the rudder and steering system had for a long time concerned me. With the boat had come a mild steel rudder and top rudder bearing, with neither of which I was happy. At Beaulieu boat jumble I found a stainless and bronze top rudder bearing with gland which I thought I could get to fit. My measurements supported my suspicions and I met the vendor in London to collect the item. I then bought stainless tube as the rudder stock and carefully drew what I wanted for the rudder and bottom bearing, got competitive quotes, chose a fabricator and set the job in motion.

This shows the rudder and heel-fitting fitted dry (as a trial fit). The rudder has had a coat (or more) of West epoxy with copper oxide powder and the heel-fitting is still bare stainless with the fabricators label showing

The concrete bottom of the keel also concerned me. Some protection for this would be advisable. I decided that I would have fabricated a mild steel keel shoe and have the boat lifted into this using epoxy glue with fillers to stick it on. This would also give an opportunity to weigh the boat.

This is the mild steel keel shoe (grey) fitted into the keel (red-brown) before fairing the gap with West epoxy filler. I subsequently weld a piece of flat bar from the lower forward point of the shoe going up and forward and then fair it in to the leading edge of the keel in order to catch less rope on the keel

With these jobs to get done and a three week sailing trip to Russia to fit in 1996 was bound to be a busy year for me. I set the launch date to coincide with a set of big spring tides at the beginning of August. It was all a bit touch and go as to whether everything would be ready or not. With three days to go and a very tight schedule I had the misfortune of having a second break-in in that year. I thoroughly resent whatever assumptions the thieves had and have. What I really hated, in addition to the theft of many tools of great value to me and probably of virtually no value to the thief (or thieves), was the time taken to repair the damage, tidy the boat and clear up the “mess”, at a time in the project which was very time critical. I still think that security in the club car park / boatyard needs to be improved. As many of you may be able to imagine my thoughts as I completed some of the more mundane tasks which had to be done did cover what might or should be done to such thieves of which I had been the victim.