Martha meets MacGyver...
Just about everyone has heard of Martha Stewart, the high priestess of cooking, fashion and home decorating, but for those of you not raised during a Reagan presidency, let me explain: MacGyver was the title character of a popular 1980’s TV series known for his improvisational ability to create just about anything out of paper clips, matches, duct tape and his Swiss Army knife.
I am indebted to both Martha and MacGyver for my latest effort. I needed to make a draft version of the crossjack (whisker pole) I’ll be using for the square sail so I can test out the range of motion to see how it interacts (or interferes) with the boat’s existing rigging. I knew the length of the crossjack needed to be about 80-84” long and I happened to inherit a Martha Stewart antique bronze, three-piece adjustable curtain rod kit. If you’ve ever installed one of these, you’ll know that two of the aluminum tubes are about one inch in diameter and then there’s a smaller diameter tube that slides inside the other tubes and adjusts to fit the width of your window.
Since this loose rod assembly is only supporting a curtain it’s made out of cheap metal and the tolerances are not very tight. For my purposes, I needed a rigid tubal structure that could handle a great deal of compression, and a fair amount of tension and shear as well, so to tighten up the tolerances, I fabricated a few custom bushings out of the rod’s plastic packing material and some aluminum speed tape (high class duct tape). I used a pipe cutter to shorten the outer tubes to the correct length, filed and smoothed the new openings, assembled the inner tube, bushings and outer tubes and then riveted it all together.
I made similar redneck bushings for the end fittings and installed them as well using removable screws since I may decide to re-use these fittings when I make the final version of these crossjack yards.
Voilà! I now have a rigid, sturdy, double-walled whisker pole worthy of MacGyver. I’ll hook one end to the ring fitting on the mast and the other end to the sail’s clew. I can move my proof-of-concept pole into the vertical stored position on the mast, down and forward to the running stowed position and back abeam to the loaded position. This will help expose any potential interference with the shrouds, bow pulpit, etc. through the entire range of motion and will help me as I confirm sightlines and locate the correct position for the line guides, blocks, cleats and T-tracks. I may even hook it up to the genoa on a light wind day when sailing downwind to see how it functions.
I am indebted to both Martha and MacGyver for my latest effort. I needed to make a draft version of the crossjack (whisker pole) I’ll be using for the square sail so I can test out the range of motion to see how it interacts (or interferes) with the boat’s existing rigging. I knew the length of the crossjack needed to be about 80-84” long and I happened to inherit a Martha Stewart antique bronze, three-piece adjustable curtain rod kit. If you’ve ever installed one of these, you’ll know that two of the aluminum tubes are about one inch in diameter and then there’s a smaller diameter tube that slides inside the other tubes and adjusts to fit the width of your window.
Since this loose rod assembly is only supporting a curtain it’s made out of cheap metal and the tolerances are not very tight. For my purposes, I needed a rigid tubal structure that could handle a great deal of compression, and a fair amount of tension and shear as well, so to tighten up the tolerances, I fabricated a few custom bushings out of the rod’s plastic packing material and some aluminum speed tape (high class duct tape). I used a pipe cutter to shorten the outer tubes to the correct length, filed and smoothed the new openings, assembled the inner tube, bushings and outer tubes and then riveted it all together.
I made similar redneck bushings for the end fittings and installed them as well using removable screws since I may decide to re-use these fittings when I make the final version of these crossjack yards.
Voilà! I now have a rigid, sturdy, double-walled whisker pole worthy of MacGyver. I’ll hook one end to the ring fitting on the mast and the other end to the sail’s clew. I can move my proof-of-concept pole into the vertical stored position on the mast, down and forward to the running stowed position and back abeam to the loaded position. This will help expose any potential interference with the shrouds, bow pulpit, etc. through the entire range of motion and will help me as I confirm sightlines and locate the correct position for the line guides, blocks, cleats and T-tracks. I may even hook it up to the genoa on a light wind day when sailing downwind to see how it functions.