Not all "just Dutch barges"Building a mast
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Not all "just Dutch barges"
Tjalk, klipper, aak.
Schoener & two klippers. 
. Cornwall, Celticfringe country.SO YOU NEED A MAST?
The wood looked somehow odd, wrinkled and a little fragile. I sighed, got up my courage and gently pushed the hand spike I was holding into the surface. There was a very momentary instant of resistance and then the spike sank smoothly in, right up to where my fingers grasped it. The deed was done. I removed the spike and repeated the operation in a number of other places. There was no mistaking it, the mast had rot in it. Jan Willem's mast was first lowered by myself in Enkhuizen prior to the first part of our trip home through the canals. At that time it appeared generally sound and those parts that appeared a little dodgy were put at the bottom of the jobs to be done list. However, after the trip home was completed and with two seasons of sailing under our belt it was time to lower the mast once again and have a good look at it. I thought I might have some problems but didn't think they were too bad. The mast was duly lowered and after removing the blocks and rigging I prepared to subject it to a meticulous survey. Unfortunately the first tentative prods revealed galloping rot around the foot and sporadically for a distance of around five feet above it. At this point I still thought it would be possible to cut off the bottom secti on and scarfe a new piece in using epoxy glue. I was not altogether happy with this, but the idea of finding a new mast was rather daunting, not too mention unlikely and so I consulted Jonathan my local friendly shipwright. He had a look and said it was fe asible, but the new section would need to be about nine feet long to accommodate a scarfe of the appropriate ratio. He said he would be prepared to have a go, but advised me to check the rest of the mast carefully first, as it would be a pointless exercis e if the rest of the spar was not in A1 condition. I worked my way along the mast and found no more rot.......until I came to the hommer. This is the part where the shrouds are attached. Generally consisting of a steel collar, mostly made in two halves clam ped around the spar and resting on a built up section of wooden sleepers let into the mast. This had clearly come loose at some time and subsequent tightening of the bolts had crushed the wood. On removal of the collar it became apparent that the mast was damaged from the crushing effect and into this had worked the inevitable rot. So, I had a good mast with rot at both ends. To make two new sections and scarf them in would mean a three piece mast. I couldn't in all faith justify that. A barge mast is norma lly a solid spar, heavy and relying on its inherent strength and resilience for survival. The mast will bend considerably, the standing rigging is only there in a supporting role rather than to pre-exert tension into the spar. In essence it behaves much l ike the tree that it once was. Trees by and large don't come in three piece sections. I needed a new mast.
It quickly became apparent that 60ft spars are not just lying around, not even in Celtic fringe country. However they are standing around in considerable numbers if you know where to look. A great deal of the country around Falmouth is owned by Lord Falmouth himself, including large areas of riverside and a forestry plantation called Tregothnan. This supplies lumber in bulk for a wide variety of purpose s. I rang the forestry manager and after a while got through to a man who knew exactly what I was talking about and how to go about it. We talked trees and agreed on Douglas fir as being the most suitable in the circumstances. Douglas fir has been widely used for mast building for many years, it is a fast growing and thus sustainable crop. It has a long straight grain, good compressive strength, a good resistance to rot and when worked it has a nice finish. All I had to do was to supply him with the exa ct size of finished spar that I required and he would produce a tree that would fulfill the purpose.
If you are building from scratch rather than from a pattern, a good rule of thumb is that the complete mast from foot to pennant should be two thirds of the length on deck of the ship that it is intended for. The most basic reason for this is so that when the mast is lowered for traveling under obstacles, and since most single masted barges carry their mast about two thirds of the way forward, it will overhan g the stern by very little, if at all. Another rule of thumb is that the diameter should be approximately double the mast height in meters read as centimeters. For example, Annekje , an aak from 1908, has a length on deck of 23meters, her mast is 16 meters long with a diameter of 34cm. Jan Willem, a tjalk from 1893 has a length on deck of 18meters and a mast height of 14 meters, with a diameter of 27 cm. Other factors must of course come into play, but these illustrate the point
At this point I went of f to read up on seasoning. I knew that in the days of the wooden fighting ship, mast ponds were set up to allow trees to soak in salt water and release their natural sap at the same time. A process that could take several years. The Dutch often adopted th e practice of soaking the wood for a summer and then drying for a winter before turning it into a useful spar. I wanted to be sailing again within six months. Soaking and drying were not the most appealing option. I read more books and found other possibilities. Seasoning does not make the wood any tougher, all it is doing is slowing down a natural process of drying out. If the wood dries too quickly it will crack. In fact most solid pole masts and spars have these cracks, or shakes, in them. Vertical crack s are no worry although they look scary, the cracks to be wary of are any that seem to travel around the spar. One school of thought was to carve a cup shaped recess in the mast head and into this was poured linseed oil at regular intervals, this apparent ly slows down the drying out process as new oil replaces the sap. Unfortunately, Dutch barge masts have a very pointy end and so there is no hope for this option, unless you are also fitting a topmast to perhaps a klipper or a koftjalk, in which case it is a possibility. Another more radical step, but apparently widely used on English boats, was to cut a slot along the mast from top to bottom. Then, as it dried out, instead of shakes forming, the stresses would be released via the introduced crack. This slot could be filled with a mixture of white lead putty and linseed oil. This allowed the slot to expand and contract a little without showing up as an unsightly split. There is a school of thought that says that all shakes must be filled with a flexible stopp er of some sort to prevent water lodging in them and introducing rot. In my opinion there is very little danger of water staying in the cracks, as the verticality of the spar, coupled with wind action dries them out in no time. With sealant you always run t he risk of trapping water inside. There is no reason why a spar can not season in situ. A tree grows from the inside out, the heartwood at the center is to all intents and purposes dead, the capillaries are clogged up and apart from the resin contained i n the wood the fibre is more or less inert. The outer layers of the tree, the sapwood are living and soft and of no real use to boatbuilding. It is the heartwood that makes the spar or the plank. I was convinced, I would buy a tree.
I sorted out all the ne cessary specifications and rang the lumber yard again. They promised to go out and search for an appropriate tree. On finding one they would mark it and I could come out and make the final decision. At this point I was approached by another dweller in the muddy beach community who had heard that I was looking to buy a tree. He had apparently already done so and so had several others and now they were looking for a way to get them from the forest to the creek. The man that I had spoken to had intimated tha t a lorry could be found (expensive) or if I knew someone with a boat they could simply chuck the tree in the river and I could tow it home. Did I know someone with a boat? Didn't I just! Talking with my beach dwelling neighbour had convinced me that the fo restry people were quite capable of finding the right tree. I told them to go ahead and cut it down and to drag it along to Parsons creek, along with the other six large and three smaller trees and I would chug around with Jan Willem and tow them back.
The top end of the Penryn river and Muddy Beach dry completely for three hours either side of low water, apart from a small channel that hangs on a further couple of hours alongside the quay. The journey time from beach to Parsons creek where the trees we re laying is about one hour fast cruising, or an hour and a half at a more economical rate. Allowing twice that for a rather slower return journey with half a forest in tow, plus getting the trees from the creek and arranged alongside Jan Willem made an estimated expedition time of five and a half, to six hours. It appeared feasible to undertake the expedition in one tidal set. We had the option of leaving on the last of the ebb and returning on the first of the flood, arguably the best option, or leavin g as soon as we floated and hopefully getting back before all was muddy once again. As circumstances panned out the only option was a Saturday, leaving on the flood, with a tidal gap of 1200 to 1800, with a little longer alongside the quay. This, in Novem be r, meant that the last couple of hours would have to be navigated in the dark. I checked with the forestry office to ensure that all the trees would be in the water at Parsons creek by Saturday and then told the other tree owners the good news. One last c all on Saturday morning confirmed that all the trees were indeed floating ready for us and since Jan Willem would not float for another hour I sat and waited. James arrived first with his two children, he had three trees waiting for him, two for masts and another for spars. He was re-rigging his lovely old Scandinavian fishing boat Integrity. Next, along came Adam who also had three trees, this time for his ferro pilot cutter. We had already been afloat for an hour or so when Keith arrived with Spike, the son of Helen and Chris who owned a smack and a lugger respectively. Two trees were for Keith as masts for Sara one of the last of the Humber sea going Billy-Boy barges. It was a lovely autumn day and we quickly slipped our moorings and motored off dow n the river, past Falmouth marina with its hundreds of look-alike plastic tubs and garish wedding cake motor cruisers, out into the harbour proper past the fishing boats off Flushing and as we left the harbour to round Trefussis point we found ourselves i n the shadow of a jack-up oil rig temporarily parked. The trip up Carrick Roads, leaving Turnaware bar to starboard, and on up to Maggoty bank and Parsons creek, went uneventfully in a convivial medley of charging, laughing children, coffee, cakes and pleasant conversation.
We arrived off Maggoty bank at just on high tide, which as it turned out was rather useful as the trees were moored with a rope to the bank in only a few feet of water. Not deep enough for even a Dutch barge to get to and they would obvi ously only stay afloat for a limited time. I nudged Jan Willem against the old granite quay with its, No mooring, No landing , No barbecues signs and Keith, James and Spike trotted off to assess the situation. Luckily the trees responded to a hefty heave on the rope and soon we had them alongside. Thinking ahead I could see that ideally I wanted the trees lashed along the starboard side, as we could then easily moor portside to when we got back to Penryn. This meant that we had to loosen the mooring ropes and fiddle the trees in between ourselves and the quay.
This was done with a lot of daring, floating-tree-walking and wet feet. Eventually all was ready and we cast off. " Do you think you have enough power to shift all this weight" asked Keith. I had previously moved heavier weights than these in the form of other barges and knew that our trusty DAF would have no problem. We set off, slowly at first and then with more confidence as I got used to the drag. By the time we arrived back at Turnaware bar th ough it was already getting dark, I turned on the navigation lights and opened the throttle. It took a while to build up momentum but we were soon chugging along at around a respectable six knots. As we reached the harbour again it was really quite dark and it took all hands to keep a look out for small dinghies and assorted mooring and lobster pot buoys. The last mile or so up the Penryn river was a little tense with an ebbing tide, a narrow channel and a rather wider than usual ship! It was with a sigh of relief that I was at last able to shut down the motor and relax alongside the quay.
The next morning we were just figuring out how to move the raft of trees through the moorings and into their temporary resting place, when a Celtic Fringe member that no on e had seen for almost a year hove into view in his old wooden smack, fresh from an extended cruise. Pressing him into service a line was made fast and the trees towed into position. When the tide had made sufficiently I moved Jan Willem back into his berth. Nobody except for myself was in any tearing hurry to start work on their spars, so it was down to Jonathan and myself to organise the lifting of my tree onto the quay and into the covered yard where we would fashion a mast. We disen tangled it from the others and with the aid of Jonathans jolly-boat and seagull outboard, gently towed it back across the creek, it took a good bit of power to get it moving and from then on it threatened to torpedo us every couple of minutes
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We eventually got it alongside the quay workshop, a very old Thames lighter, and hooked on to the onboard mechanical crane. A whole wet tree is very heavy! There was no way that we could lift it straight onto the quay, we had to lift one end and lash it to a heavy duty trolley and then lift the other end and slide it along to the area that I had rented for two weeks. Being in more of a hurry than the others, I had paid extra to the forestry men to have my tree de-barked, this allowed us to see just how straight it actually was. It look ed good to me and after setting it up on trestles and carefully placing a line along it, Jonathan pronounced himself satisfied. Of course no tree is completely straight, unless you can afford to use a very large tree and cut away considerable amounts of wood, to obtain a truly straight spar unequal amounts must be taken from each side. If your tree is not fat enough, then this process can end up with some sap wood being incorporated into the finished spar. In some cases this can be tolerated but it is not ideal. My tree was straight enough and fat enough to be acceptable. At this point I had to return to work and left Jonathan with the appropriate measurements and diagrams to work from. Jonathan is a veteran of many masts, but at that time it was the biggest that he had tackled. The first step was to square the spar, one flat at a time, rotating between each stage.
To do this he used first a chainsaw to make the first cuts, joined these up using an axe and then an adze to finish the first rather course stage. The foot of the new mast was to remain square to fit into the tabernacle and take the retaining pin.
Above this area the square section was carefully converted to first an eight sided and then a sixteen sided figuration. Through every stage great care wa s taken to ensure accuracy and straightness. Now I could join in again and working in the evenings after Jonathan had finished for the day, I planed and sanded until we had a nice round spar.
The top area of the mast, the part above the shrouds, had to be fashioned into a gentle taper that would fit the existing mast fittings. These were all one-piece units of graduated diameter that had to fit exactly in relation to each other, to allow the various halyards to function correctly. The shroud collar itself w as a two piece unit and instead of letting separate sleepers of wood into the mast to support the collar we opted for a positive shoulder. This meant that the mast was actually almost parallel from the point above the tabernacle to the hommer and this allow s the gaff jaw and sail parrel beads to slide more sweetly. Above the topmost mast fitting sits the steaming light and above this the spar tapers radically to a true point. Over this slides an aluminium cone that supports the pivoting wooden wimpel suppor t and finally the carved wooden mast ornament, the wortle . The fittings were all serviceable and appeared to be very old, probably dating from the previous mast, or even the one before that. I cleaned them up and wire brushed them thoroughly before giving them a thick coat of red primer and two coats of white Hammerite smooth . It is worth noting, that unlike British tradition which sees most old ships with the topmost part of the mast painted white with black fittings, the Dutch always adopted the opposit e, with a black top section and white fittings. The exception to this was one small group of skippers who went against the trend for religious reasons, these became known as the Witte toppers .
At the other end of the mast some 14m away was the foot. This was left as a square section with the dimensions to fit inside the tabernacle, whilst still allowing the movement necessary to allow it to pivot freely when raising or lowering it. The original steel pin was re-used, but this time I made up two flanged b ushes socketed into the wood to help spread the load a little more evenly. The all important hole through the mast to accept the pin, was drilled by Jonathan using a complicated home made jig and a lot of experience. This hole and the internal diameter of the bushes should be on the generous side of bigger than the pin that will pass through it. Although the mast pivots around the pin as it is raised, when it reaches the upright position all the weight should be taken on the foot and not the pin. This is normally achieved by allowing a significant gap under the mast foot when fully raised and then carefully inserting a precisely cut wedge, that, as it is tapped home, transfers the weight from the pin to the bottom of the tabernacle.
The many barges fitted with counterweighted masts adopt a similar strategy, but in this case the mast foot itself is much longer, as the mast is effectively stepped on the bottom of the ship rather than on deck, supported by a beam shelf.
At this point it was decided to lift the mast back onto Jan Willem to ensure that all our measurements had been accurate. After a certain amount of fiddling about the new mast was settled into the tabernacle with the upper end supported in a jury rigged crutch. We motored back across the creek to undertake the fitting of all the *standing and running rigging. It was also time to decide exactly how we were going to treat the mast, oil? varnish? stain? paint? The traditional method was to use copious amounts of boiled linseed oil and who was I t o flout tradition. It took a couple of days for each coat to go off and in the end four applications seemed enough. This left the wood looking beautiful, a dull gleam and all the subtle golds and reds of the Douglas fir showing through. However, I knew from experience that it would not last, oil soon goes a dirty black as it dries out and picks up dust and dirt from the air. The abrasion from parrel beads as the sail is hoisted, not to mention the gaff, all tend to give a working mast a hard life. Bearing in mind the newness of the mast, I decided to give it a coat of paint in the hope that it would partially seal the exterior and thus help to slow down the all important drying out time. When all was complete we set up the mast raising legs and carefully winched the mast finally upright. The wedge was tapped into place under the mast foot until the pivot pin was able to be freely rotated by hand and the shrouds made up loosely in place, to allow everything to settle down.
After the first seasons sailing the mast had weathered into a dull working brown colour and only a few shakes had appeared. Two years later I lowered it again to give it a general inspection and service, and now four years on again after two more inspections I am happy to say that all is still well.
So there it is, if you want a mast don't spend time looking for an old one that might fit, go out, find a tree and do it yourself!
David Evershed
*Scheepsrestauratie, published by De Boer Maritime, 1988.This book details the whole process of restoring the Hasselteraak Annigje and although it is written in Dutch, almost every stage of restoration is accompanied by photos, or technical drawings. The mast and its dimensions is of course clearly illustrated and also the various mast fittings. Armed with this book and a little imagination it would be perfectly possible to produce clear specifications and diagrams for your own project for yourself or others to build from.
*See rigging article by the same author.