As She Was

In 1985 I purchased Sulaire, then named "Trouble" with a broken mast and a blown engine. According to the broker, she was taking on a fair bit of water, understandable for a 56 year old wooden boat. Upon inspection, I found her hull was in incredible shape.

The first thing I did was to paint her white to help reduce shrinkage from the sun.














The next step was to build a new mast. Her beautiful chromed bronze hardware was intact and there were enough pieces of the old mast left to get the correct measurements so I set out to duplicate the tapered, tear drop shape. I consulted with an accomplished spar builder on Orcas Island. He showed me how to lay up the pieces and orient the grain along with ideas on how to use threaded rod to make cheap clamps. Since he had previously owned a Fife Ten Meter he was really excited about my project and very helpful.

I built a jig for the router to reproduce identical long scarfs making 5 - 62' lengths out of 30 ft 2x8s. The tapers were cut into them and cants were glued to the front and back sections to allow clamping in both directions. This also kept the wall thicknesses even.



















The box was then glued up using resourcinol glue with 60 clamps made from threaded rod and 1 x 4s. Then, using a power planer for two long days the excess was trimmed away. I finished with a sanding belt from a belt sander using it like a shoe strop to smooth the rounded leading edge.

With paint and the installation of hardware and wire I was ready to raise the mast. During this time, I had installed a new diesel engine and so had power to motor across the sound to the mast crane.

I set the mast rake using an old photo of the boat and sailed her with an older suit of sails. She handled beautifully. I had been told by the previous crew that the boat had a serious lee helm, I was perplexed.

I had the newer sail repaired and that revealed the problem. The new main was 15" longer on the leach and the mast could not be raked enough to balance the boat.

After the first sail in heavy air, it was obvious that she was flexing too much. Even though her sheer looked perfect, the hull seemed slightly flat amidships and her cabin sides were pushed in where they meet the deck. I referenced the Lloyds numbers and found that she was 3/4" narrower than she should be. For the next few weeks, using a jack, I put pressure on her cabin sides and cockpit coamings pushing her back into shape ever so slightly, a little every day, keeping an eye on her progress from the deck of a neighboring boat, beer in hand. (Meter boats don't sail without beer...but that's another story.) When she matched her numbers, she looked perfect from a distance.

The next step was to install a new deck beam between the cabin and the cockpit. This beam is notched into 2 new beam shelves of the same dimensions as those spreading the load at the mast. After this the leaking stopped and she felt as stiff as a rock while pounding through rough seas. Now it was time to go north, visit the Canadian 8 meters and enjoy the fruit of my labors.




(Last photo: Detail of beam shelf and joint with new cross beam)