POWER OPTIONS FOR PUDDLEDUCK

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Mast & Boom

Build a 9' or 8', 6" mast from a welldried and smoothed hardwood sapling, or make a lightweight, hollow rectangular wood mast from two lengths of 1 "-wide wood strips set 1" apart and epoxysandwiched between a facing pair of 3"-wide boards ...or build a little weightier version from 3" (inside diameter) white PVC plumbing pipe. Bolt or inset a pulley (a "block" in nautical lingo) at the top of the mast and fasten binding cleats on each side at deck-level (13" or 14" up from the bottom). To hold the "snotter," the line that holds the sprit sail's boom to the mast, affix a small pulley (to handle 3/8" rope) halfway up the front of the mast.

Install a mast step in your PuddleDuck according to the plan: a wellepoxied upper thwart with a mastsized hole in the center and a plug of wood or 2 1/2" ID plumbing pipe on a wood base and sized to slip a few inches up into the hollow mast interior. The plug is epoxied to the hull directly under the center of the hole in the thwart.

To install the step properly, set the boat level from gun'l to gun'1, and block bow and stern so a spirit-level placed on two boards set across the hull, and aligned with the stem-to-stern centerline, shows level. Block the boat so you can work inside it without its shifting.

On the inside of the hull about 6" back from the edge of your deck, and just below the gunwales, measure and mark locations of the opposing horizontal cleats that will support the mast-support-thwart so they are equidistant from the bow-peak and their lower surfaces are on the same plane—so a level set under them shows the pair of them level thwart-to-thwart and each individually level fore and aft. When epoxy holding the upper cleats is set, set ends of the mast-support thwart into a bead of epoxy troweled in underneath each cleat. Install lower support cleats in epoxy under the support-thwart and adjust so that the forward edge of each side is equidistant from the bow peak and lodged tightly against the upper cleat. Tack lower cleats in place with screws into holes pilot-drilled through cleat and into the hull. Tape edges and top and bottom of the thwart as well; it will have to withstand a good deal of stress.

Fabricate the lower part of the mast-step—the plug and its mount—as shown in the illustration. Once cured, place plug under upper support, slip mast through hole and into plug. Bed the plug into epoxy, use level to assure that the mast is vertical on all sides. Hold mast vertical and tack the plug in place with screws through at least two corners.

Use short lengths of tape and epoxy to secure all four sides of the sprit to the hull. Tape upper support and wooden cleats to hull as well.

Make the other spar—the sprit-boom—that holds the sail out to catch the air from a smaller sapling, from three 9' x 2"-wide (1 1/2" actual) lumberyard pine boards epoxied into a rectangle, or from 2" PVC tubing.

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