Goose-neck plate finally removed

Monday 9 Nov, HHN, boat winterizing day 40:
Oh my, have I been here for 40 days and nights! Where does time fly to when you are engrossed? It’s just over a week to go till I fly back home to Bucharest and back into the Admiral’s arms. We joked on the phone today that some major cleanup will be needed when the Captain arrives. Minus the shopping trolley, I will need complete de-HOBOisation. Hair cut for sure, and not just the usual; I need nose, ears and facial included. Then mani and pedi, a few nice massages, and some serious rehydration to my hands. Nurse and therapist Oana is getting prepared ….

Last couple of nice days here before rain arrives midweek. Must get all the outside jobs completed. First job of the day is to finish the mast winch service. I’d started this too late yesterday and ended up covering the workplace as the evening dew arrived. This morning, I just have to lightly buff the drums and reassemble.
At Weaver, I finally get to meet the big boss and owner, Jim. I normally only do work there after hours but today is an exception and I’m caught red-handed! Luckily, Ray was there and introduced me before I got the anticipated “…and who the hell are you?” kind of question. Considering Weaver Boats are turning out large hand-crafted Sports Fisher boats, each costing millions, Jim is a very down-to-earth kind of guy, both in dress and manner. No wonder there is such an easy-going atmosphere in this workplace.

With the winch drums gleaming, I return and relatively quickly finish the job. Funny, servicing the winches normally seems such a chore, but after all the recent challenges with the rig systems, this time it was actually a pleasure. In fact, when I opened them up, they still looked clean and well-greased from when I last serviced them in 2018, so it was an easy job and a pleasure. Maybe, finally, good quality servicing is starting to pay out dividends.

While in the mode of easy jobs, I quickly fit the serviced traveler carriage to the end of the outhaul piston ready to re-insert it into the boom. So nice to see it sitting there all completely refurbished and looking like new (except for the 2 missing sheaves which I need to order replacements of).

Next, I go back to more challenging tasks. Removing the goose-neck plate on the mast. Yesterday I’d easily removed the vang plate, but 2 bolts refused to come out of the goose-neck plate. Stubborn bolts can become a nightmare. With the heat gun on the outside of the boom and a mini blow torch on the inside, I heat up the surrounding metal. I feel a bit like I’m doing a dentist operation because with one hand I have the blow torch inside the mast and in the other hand a mirror to enable me to see where I’m actually pointing the torch inside the mast.
After a lot of heating, one bolt does come out OK with the impact wrench. But the second one’s head rounds out. Damn! Now I have no choice but to drill out the stainless-steel bolt. This is always a challenge when the bolt is into a soft material like aluminum because the drill bit always wants to wander off into the weaker material. But this time, with some patience, I manage to drill off the bolt head OK. With 2 smaller bolts that hold the backing plate in place removed, I manage to knock the backing plate off and retrieve it, along with the menacing bolt still stuck in it.
I discover the backing plate holes have stainless steel insert threads. A nice touch by Selden, trying to mitigate corrosion around this VERY important fitting. The highest strain on any sailing rig is always at the goose neck (where boom joins mast).

Happy to finally have this fitting removed, the last one that I wanted to remove, and I find a lot of white aluminum oxide dust underneath. But once cleaned off, the corrosion is not as bad as it first appeared. It’s gone through the anodizing, yes, but not much deeper. The integrity of the mast is still good. Rebuilding with Tefgel and a new plastic liner should keep it good for the rest of our ownership.

Just before dark I head off to get my heat exchanger and satellite base from Eric’s engineering workshop. He has resoldered the first and sandblasted (not very well) the second. And when he gives me the bill I’m reminded again that I must strive not to use outside help wherever possible while in the USA. @ $105 per hour his 2.5hr bill plus tax is not small, considering how simple the job was. That said, a new heat exchanger is Euros 700 and a new satellite dome base over 1,500!

My evening is spent wet sending the satellite base, trying to tidy it up enough to paint. Yes, the sand blasting got 95% of the paint off, but the last 5% took me all evening to remove, and left the galley in less than a clean state (psss …. don’t tell Oana!)