Tuesday 31st July : Stepping the Mast

The delay caused by the crane problems yesterday meant that the stepping of the mast could not take place until an enormous Oyster 82 had been launched at about 13:00. This was the first Oyster launched since the business was rescued from administration, and was quite a big deal locally. All the staff were on the dockside to cheer in the boat, accompanied by local media interest. We were amused in the evening to see Kered in the background as the Oyster launch was reported on local TV.

First job of the afternoon was to pander to tradition as we placed a silver sixpenny piece on the step for good luck.


George V Silver Sixpenny piece glued into the mast step


The Mast assembly fully dressed and ready to go.

The mast stepping crane at Saxon Wharf sits on top of the travel hoist, which meant pulling Kered back to the launching pit so that the mast could be lowered on to the mast step on deck. Once the big Oyster was out of the way, the team pulled Kered back to the pit, and moored her in position. In the mean time the guys from Spencer Rigging wheeled the mast around to the travel hoist, and placed slings for the lift. While the crane on the travel hoist lifted the mast from the top spreaders, an overgrown fork lift truck ( normally used to lift fairly sizeable motor boat on and off a giant racking system called Dry Stack ) lifted the base, together they gently raised the mast to vertical at the edge of the launch pit.


Mast crane atop the travel hoist ( note the racked motor boats behind! )


Kered in position. 


The mast crane and giant fork lift truck raising the mast to vertical.


Sling positioned just below the top spreaders, lifted by the mast crane.




The riggers manoeuvring the mast onto the step.


The mast in place; Kered is now 21m tall!!

The two forestays are temporary, and are tensioned with a chain winch. Once the rig is positioned and tensioned, the distance from the end of the temporary stays to the anchor points are measured so that the final stay lengths can be calculated, and the finished stays made up.


Moving Kered back to the pontoon where the rigging will be completed tomorrow.

The riggers will be back in the morning to finalise the rig and fit the boom and downwind poles. In the meantime the commissioning team are beavering away, doing what needs to be done before we take delivery.

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