Fifty days to go. There's plenty of work to start and finish if I'm launching on July One. The mast is now round and to size with the exception of the top and bottom; those areas I'll do by hand. I've puttied up all my screw holes and any small voids in the joints. Hopefully I can sand these fills tomorrow. The mast looks good. I put in about two hours on sanding it today starting with 24 grit and working my way up to 120 grit. I used belt sander belts cut open to do the sanding. When I started out the square box mast weighed 105 lbs. It now weighs 80 lbs.

The other big task of the day was sanding and fairing the hull of H2. I'd done one side but needed to "fix" the keel where I'd applied 12 oz biaxial cloth and do all of the inboard side. After another sanding, I'll give everything a last epoxy coating and then a last sanding before primer and paint though I still need to mount the lashing doublers and plates at the beam locations.

Hole saw mandrel for turning the mast. Close up of mandrel. I attached it to the mast with 3" screws.


Webbing loop.


Detail of webbing loop and black from which I suspended the mast.


Filling screw holes and joint voids on the mast.


Final coat of fairing compound on bottom of H2.