Building a Wooden Sailboat #20: Making the Mast

In part twenty of this series on how to build a wooden Snipe class sailboat I show how I make a wooden mast from scratch. I mill blanks from left over cypress from the framing of the boat, then laminate and glue the mast blanks. Next I install the halyards, hardware, and winches.

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[gds]

Outstanding job! I am planning on building a wooden OK dinghy and your videos are very inspirational to me. Well done! Thanks!

[alejandromuller]

Congratulations from Argentina!! It seems to be a perfect mast. My dad had a snipe wich gave us years of fun.

[mzungu]

Mate, amazing series. Thank you so much for putting so much effort into building such a beautiful boat and taking the extra time to share it with all of us. I feel I learnt a heck of a lot by watching you should I ever embark on a (much simpler) boat build. 👍

[kaynediaries]

It feels nice watchin this project to completion, , thanks for sharing this beautiful thing, as always god bless and god speed

[ExploringUndercover]

Hey, I'm from the Shetland Islands and anything maritime is a huge part of our culture, so when I say you've made a beautiful job of that I mean it! I cannot wait to see this baby hit the water! I absolutely love this series, it's so informative and has taken a complex subject and broken it down into handy and easy to follow sections.

I'm thinking about building a small sailboat, even if it was just a model to see how the real thing would go together. But I'm having trouble sourcing plans. I would like to try putting a simple plywood boat together using the stitch and glue method as this looked like an easy way to get into it. As seen on the YouTube channel HanDIY when he built his one. Wave Dancer Yacht Designs had the perfect plans for me, and they went really in depth. But the guy disappeared and his plans aren't available anymore! I've been scouring the internet but I can't find anything that goes in depth. Do you know anywhere I could source a decent set of plans?

Keep up the good work! Can't wait to see her progress!

[mattevans-koch]

Having to move your house for an off shore job has to be an interruption of the most extreme kind. Beautiful work on the spar and rigging. Thank you for sharing.

[timdunn]

Awesome work!! I love how you hollowed out a slot for stays and different rigging! I built a dyer dhow from scratch bassically. Most rewarding thing I’ve ever done! P.S. careful with your router! I nearly lost my thumb a month ago! 16 stitches. Just reminding my fellow wood workers. Laziness with tools goes wrong in less than a second! Keep up the good stuff! 👍👍👍

[oumenelabrise]

Hi, you may want to keep an eyes on the aluminum tang since the stainless hardware ( shackle ) can dig into the soft aluminum and deform the hole. Once deformed, some of the robustness is lost. Great video, keep posting.

[josealbertopenaquintana]

Thank you very much for this marvel of work, I am very grateful and it is proving very useful. I had never built anything like this and I took on this challenge. I am a high school teacher with 17-year-old students and I am building one following your videos and the help of a friend who does have great knowledge in wooden shipbuilding from Astilleros Nereo in Malaga - Spain. I wonder if the series ends with video number 20. Admiring greetings from Spain.

[josealbertopenaquintana]

Muchas gracias por esto maravilla de trabajo, estoy muy agradecido y me está resultando muy útil. Nunca había construido aldo así y me lancé con este desafío. Soy profesor de bachillerato con alumnos de 17 años y estoy construyendo uno siguiendo tus vídeos y la ayuda de un amigo que sí tiene grandes conocimientos en la construcción naval en madera de Astilleros Nereo en Málaga - España. Me pregunto si la serie termina con el vídeo número 20. Un saludo con admiración desde España.

[JamesZareski]

Hi, Where can I find the plans for the mast fabrication?

[lucasandri]

Hi, your videos about this snipe build are amazing. I've restored an old wooden snipe 2 years ago but unfortunately i wasn't able to find the plans for the mast as it was missing so i opted buying an old one and restored it also. If you can find stainless steel I advice you to change the aluminium hardware as it would wear quickly and it has very low strength compared to stainless. I don't really like the stainless rope for the sails and the winch mechanism. Does it have a quick release feature? Because if you're sailing and suddenly find strong wind you have to quickly lower the sails, it's a safety feature.

[moacirfdr-imbituba-sc]

I am brazilian!

Congratulations on the artwork!

On which website can you buy the design of this boat?

[Pocketfarmer]

Nice work . I was with you until you used aluminum bar for the for stay tang. It’s too thin and prone to wearing out. Bronze or stainless would have been better. By glueing it in place, any future change will be difficult.

[pongo-mp]

Great content...but you need to lose the music. Not only is it too loud but it distracts from the enjoyment of the video. I literally had to turn the sound off.

[egdiryellam]

The over loud music ruined what could have been a good video ---- I turned off after 1 minute.