Radio mast. Tufnol fittings
When I bought Meritaten I got VHF radio with her. I had my own radio so the spare one was sitting in the box since then. I happen to also have several meters coax cable and spare VHF antenna so how about building the radio mast, shall we?
Behind my house, on a pile of junk (my wife’s terminology) or rather “material storage rack” as I call it, I had several aluminum pipes. With a bit of creativity they can be joined all together to form a radio mast.
Not to provoke inquisitive neighbors I rose it close to a tree. That prove to be a mistake as all stabilization lines were constantly getting tangled with tree branches. After several hours of constant cursing, climbing the ladder and more cursing I finally anchored the structure.
Coax cable runs inside the mast and into my workshop. I’ll need to move some typewriters to build radio rack.
I hope that Albert, my radio guru, will approve the setup!
I found a piece of Tufnol to finish a few fittings for Meritaten.
First went winch handles. Two years back, while sailing with Jim I lost one of my Tufnol-winch handles. I made a replacement from brass but I was not sure how to finish it. Jim pointed that this plastic sphere on a handle does not match Meritaten’s style and that I may do something about it.
Well, so I did.
Tufnol pieces cut to match both the new handle and old one. I drilled and tapped M6 holes in it to mount it on brass handles. A few minutes on circular grinder and some finish on desk polishing machine and new handles are ready for service.
Tufnol is a wonderful material - it can be formed with woodworkers tools but it is extremely resistant to weather and time. I have original Tufnol blocks and winches on Meritaten and after 60+ years they look the same as if they were new. This is the only man-made material I keep on my boat - fifties wonder-stuff!
I had a bit left so I made engine steering handle from it. Original Yanmar handle was polyurethane rubber which broke apart before I got the boat. Christer, the previous owner, used electrical tape to hold it in place. For many years it was an eye-sore till this year when I took it away - keeping just bare steel rod. Tufol handle will bring it back to shape.
I connected two rectangular pieces with double-sided tape and put them into lathe to form a cylinder.
In one of them I routed a trace matching engine steering rod.
The rod will be held with friction-fit in place while both halves will be lashed together. To keep it tidy I added two tracks for hiding the string.
As a last thing for today I made a tiller mount for the autopilot. It is a modified aluminum arm which I saved from garbage bin long time ago, at work. Cut to size, with threaded hole to accommodate the landing pin, it will be screwed to the tiller close to the rudder.