Thanks Paul,
Picked it up yesterday, will start to shape it when I get some dry weather down here, will post pics of progress
Started to shape the piece of oregon today for a new mast for the Bleriot.
It is a very old piece that Paul supplied for me.
Paul maybe you can tell us the history and age of this piece of timber I think it would be interesting, and adds a bit of charm to the mast
Nice piece of timber you have there Vic
Reading up about Oregon or Douglas fir is an interesting exercise .....a very special tree
I never knew they grew to such a massive size and relatively quickly
Should make an excellent mast for your Bleriot
you hid all the boltholes really well Vic. The piece is one of 4 that I cut out of a 12"x12" x24' long beam. ( imagine the 4 corners), the beam had been one of two that ran down the middle of a foundry in Kalgoorlie (Bennets Foundry) the beams held up the overhead crane that carried the crucibles from the furnace. The foundry cast the biggest popet head wheel in the southern hemispgere in its day. It was kept very busy during both wars casting grenades etc. this we know as we live about 150 m from the shed and our soil is a combination of rock clay and foundry slag. found a dud grenade casting the first day in the house. shed is gone and a 24hr Gym in its place. Termites had chwed in through the middle of the beam and out the other end but I saved all the wood I could with a chainsaw and circular saw. We will be burning the remnants in september. Ive built a sweep oar and 2 masts from the bits Ive cut out. when you get old Doug Fir you count the growth rings per inch .+36 is the best stuff. Ive even got some old WW2 stretchers with the handles made from +50 rings . all are stamped WD 1942.
forgot to mention that shaping a wooden mast is one of the most pleasant ans satisfying things you can do with a stick of wood 
wouldnt you agree Vic
Thanks Paul.
I new it had a bit of history, Great to know were a piece of history ended up and put into another replica piece of history.and making the mast out of it gives me a lot of pleasure.
Have you tapered your mast top. Ive tapered down to 50mm over the last meter.. Its traditional with wooden masts to paint the top 1/2 m or so white. I dont know why but it just looks proper and right. I suspect its so the rigging and attachments can be seen at night when sailing
I plan to taper the top down to 2" so that it can take the cable head. Painting the top sounds like a good idea. Cleaned out the bolt holes and fitted a dowel held in by epoxy resin and microfiber (dowel is a tight fit), also filled the white ant groves with epoxy resin.
I routed out my termites and glued a wooden piece into the mast. quite a common practice even in massive wooden spars.When you cut your slots foe the pulley can I suggest you paint the inside of the slot with a mixture of graphite powder and epoxy. Ive done that on my schooner to haul up a 12m gaff sail and I dont even have a pulley sheave, just the rounded out slot and the graphite epoxy
Mast finished except for final sand and varnish. Tapered the top to 52mm from 75mm to take the end cap, pretty happy how it turned out, I don't think I will break this one.
heres the next installment ,if youve been waiting. The rear chassis component which also mounts the steering and the sheeting horse. Ive built 2 versions of this .
The official one is 700mm wideand has machined bearing housings that have been welded in place to take either a 6004,ball bearing set or alternatively a set of 32004X tapercones. these will both take a 20mm bolt as the pin for the steering. the tubing for the sheeting horse is 20mm OD electrical conduit and the central brace is 12mm solid round. Bleriots original has a cable and turnbuckle as the central brace,Vic also used this, but Ive opted for a simpler solution. I believe the brace and bolted on tubes(ive welded mine) are in keeping with this yacjht being sold as a flat pack Kit that you could assemble yourself. this would also account for the variations on where the winch and steering are mounted. In the photos you will also see the narrower version Im puting together,only 600mm wide and Ive used 12mm solid instead of the conduit. very quick and easy to build. this back end also has a simpler tubing set up to take nylon bushes instead of bearings. the only "modern" material Im planning on the yacht
I also re-used the ply board from the mast hound as a base to set up the welding process for the rear
I had a plan to make a funky steering wheel by steaming a length of cane and then bolting it on . however ,things didnt go to plan. the steamer box worked just fineand we soon had a nice piece of bendy can ,but the cane had come out of a peice of furniture and was riddled with drill holesand nails.
when it came time to bend it it consistently failed on the drill holes. I tried steaming a few other types of wood , but just couldnt get the bend
heres the steamer in full flight. the cane was even bending where it came out
kinks on the drill holes. the cane probably needed to be slightly thinner and have no flaws. its firewood now. will have to resort to plan C
Finished the new mast for the Bleriot after snapping the last one, changed the size from 50mm dia to 75mm should be OK now.
Had the Bleriot out at Lake Lefroy, Thought it would be nice to get some pics in dress of the period
who would have thought that shopping for hats would be so much fun. The missus was getting relly frustrated when i was dropping into every hatty kind of shop I could find. managed 2 leather flying caps ,1 beret,1 greek fishemans cap,2 peeky blinders,1 boater AND a Russian chopper pilots helmet ( had to buy that one). now to get back to the yachts
my humble apologies folks for letting my building grind to a halt. .I finally regained some control of things,put my foot down ,cleared a space in the shed and got back to work
here are 2 rear ends all welded up. I will do some plans and notes this week to accompany the pic ,but for now at least Im back on the case 
it is worth noting in this pic that the mounting lugs are at 2 different widths to suit a 700 mm wide frame and a 600mm wide racing frame. I did feel rather pleased whwn i finished as its the first "me" day ive had in a while
ok folks heres the drawing to go with the axle . a few things to note. Ive used 32nb galv tube. Vic used a heavy wall cold drawn drill tube.my axle will be lighter,but not as bullet proof. from the pics I have of an original bleriot the tubing looks quite thin wwhich makes sense when trying to get down to 60 kg.. the lower brace tube is electrical conduitand ive shaped the ends before welding onto the axle for a cleaner finish. the 20mm bolt that forms the steering pivot was slotted right through the axlebefore welding which i feel will be stronger and made it easier to get perpendicular.20mm of shaft poked out underneath then the rest of the support is 12mm round rod. the final pic shows the base for the bearings of plastic bush . its simply a 60mm long piece of 40x40x2 RHS drilled to 20mm then cut off the stock to fit over the stub then spot welded in place.
couple
yeah christmas . i have a 7 day building window to play in the shed. kitchen is well advenced and i cant make sanding dust as wifey just cleaned whole house. I located my 10m x8m shade sail and covered the frame down the back . now i have a space to set up and build. plan is to push on with the 700 wide version so I have something to race Vic with at walyungup. saw Vic yesterday,when he dropped in to pick up some acetylene lamps. branded Sons of Gwalia ,. very rare. so this afternoon Timbers sealed and ready to drill . will clean up steel and undercoat .paaint as i go
cracking couple of days so far.after whipping up a make up desk for my daughter from timber I had milled, i managed to get some shed time. yesterday i bolted the frame and did a basic alignment.then i created a for'ard mast hound and sheet halyard. felt nice to be finally drilling holes in wood
After that i cut drilled and bent up the seat brackets(4) and went to bed thinking on how to get them accurate. next day I drilled 2 holes in my multi jig and they were welded in a few minutes
next i had to bend the seat back ,but someones just come in the gate so I'll post later
the seatback hoops were cold forgwed on the anvil out of 6x25 flat. Im noticing that this yacht simply eats up flat bar. Im on my second length. also need to stock up on conduit as that will be getting a hammering soon. the trick on the anvil was to use the same die that i used on the axle braces and slowly bend till it matched the wooden template I cut from scraps
next i wipped up some front seat supports and then the foot rests from 12mm rod and mooore flat. with this yacht being the wider 700mm model Ive fitted the foot bar inside the frame. vics is mounted externally I think. With the seat backs in place the yacht looks too wide. I suspect Vics 500mm wide machine will prove to the the better looking machine.800mm wide ( as advertized by bleriot)
would seem like a 2 seater
