9 Days to Raise the Mast

We got a call from the yard that has been graciously letting us store our mast for free.  Unfortunately they called to inform us that they want the mast out by June 1st or we have to start paying $30 cents a foot per day...  That's $425 a month to let a 44 foot long stick sit against the fence out back!  We had planned on standing the rig in "about two weeks" ... boat time...  But a more specific date with a large penalty attached to it changes things, so we have given ourselves nine days to complete the mast rigging and the mast support.  Today is day two. Time to break it down.

MAST SUPPORT:

Inside
Remove Toilet
Remove Toilet support board
Discover that the bottom few inches of the mast support post are rotted and SOFT
Cut out rotted portion of mast support post
Make fiberglass mast support
Glass in new mast support
Make fiberglass support for under corner of floor in the head
Attach mast support plank (replacing the delaminated top layers and thickening it)
Build mast support arch
Put insulation and vinyl on ceiling around where mast plate and arch will go
Fill old bolt holes in mast plate with epoxy
Put up mast plate
Install arch
Outside:
Reshape cabin top mast base into shape of new mast base w/ epoxy

Would be nice: but not essential
Main sheet traveler
Genoa tracks
Life lines (be nice to the riggers)

RIG:

Cut 2 feet off the bottom of the mast
Cut spreaders
Mount steaming light, foredeck light, spreader lights, and anchor/tri light
Mount VHF Antenna
Mount Wind Transducer
Mount Windex
Replace halyard sheaves
Run electrical wires, solder, terminate and finish
Run halyards
Splice halyards ends
Measure & Cut D1, D2, & D3, Swage top ends
Measure and Cut V1 & V2
Run lower shroud / D1,  No termination
Mount lower spreaders
Run intermediate shroud / D2,  Threaded stud and turnbuckle termination
Mount Upper spreaders
Run V1 upper toggle, no termination
Run upper-outer shrouds D3/V2  Eye termination
Install delta plate
Install backstays top eyes and run backstays,   No termination
Install forestay top eye and run forestay,  No termination, but Harken cruising unit 1 toggle under turnbuckle
Bundle it up
Call Mack

Not too bad... right?  The countdown has already begun.  I'm mostly concerned about having and acquiring all the things needed for this. We've got fittings, we've got wire, ropes are on the way... But there are always little missing parts that take a week to arrive. Or days spent running around getting screws and solving problems we didn't account for.  Hence "boat time." Which would be 9 days times 3.

I added this list to Checklist to Launch, and will be crossing things off as we go.

The bright side: there is no disputing about what to work on next, and 9 days or not, we will have a rigged boat in June.

Before we got the phone call, we did this:

How freakin'  beautiful is that!?  Cleat chocks. Cool no?  On the right is the original set up. We only had the left cleat on the bow when we splashed. The right one got removed because it was cracking. The left one was stubborn and we got distracted with something else.  The bow chocks set into the old toerails were angled outward and too big for our new rails. We needed another cleat, and new chocks.  We went to Marine liquidators, a consignment and outlet warehouse in Fort Pierce to see what they had.  While digging through the chocks we found a something that doubled as both! Unfortunately they only had one, not a matching pair.  Such is the luck of consignment store. But it was such a cool space saving device I was determined to find a pair.  After googleing, I found that they aren't that common, and not many people are making them. But a couple weeks of late night online diligence yielded a set of new stainless Newfound Metals cleat chocks, half price on ebay.  Another cool thing about them, is that they don't use bolts. Instead, you screw threaded rod into female threaded holes in the bottom of the cleats to create a studded assembly. Then you just push the cleat/stud/pad assembly through the deck and screw on nuts from below.  Making it a fastening system that doesn't require two people - one up top to hold the bolt still, and one below to tighten the nuts.  AJ did it himself while I was painting before I even knew what was happening.  It's not a terribly uncommon fastening system, but it's the first of it's kind on our boat!  But most importantly, there are no longer toe traps in the middle of the foredeck.  It's really hard not to jam your toes on cleats when the ground beneath you is unstable and there is no where else to step.
Problem solved.

Now, I must stop basking in the shine of the new cleat chocks and go prepare the mast for rigging.
The clock is tick tick ticking, and I've had my Redbull.