Special Delivery!

 Usually when UPS or FedEx swings by  the WFC they are delivering boxes of various sizes with contents such as marine hand held radios, replacement aquaria parts, line of various types and sizes, and other materials. When they come to your house those same sized boxes could be filled with that month’s delivery from your bacon or wine of the month club, perhaps the new jacket or vest for the ski season, or some type of electronic device. All of which are pretty exciting, and most of us can’t wait to rip open the box to see what’s inside. We may have even of forgot what we ordered, which makes it even more exciting!

Well last week, we didn’t get any of those things and we were still pretty excited! The over-sized doors opened up at Christeen’s temporary home and in rolled her brand new mast. It took a few guys, to say the least, a forklift and whatever else they could get their hands on to negotiate the move, but they got it done. The mast was set up (with snow still on it) on a few stands to begin the prep work. 

Basted like a turkey on Thanksgiving Day, the mast receives special treatment and probably receives even more attention than the glorious Thanksgiving Day turkey you may enjoy each year. Multiple times per day a linseed oil and tar mix is applied to the mast which will help preserve the wood and prevent rot from forming. The mast also will get cut down to the exact specifications as it was delivered to us in a rough approximate shape from the mill. The old mast it’s replacing is measured and those measurements are transferred over to the new mast so an exact replica can be fashioned. The fittings on the old mast that are not being replaced are going to be refinished and reused while new fittings are made.

The mountains of snow and ice and cold temperatures did its worst, but were unable to deter our dedicated team of shipwrights and volunteers from the job. The team is moving forward on the project at full bore I hope we can keep you with their pace!