Thanks Paul,
Picked it up yesterday, will start to shape it when I get some dry weather down here, will post pics of progress

Nice piece of timber you have there Vic
Reading up about Oregon or Douglas fir is an interesting exercise .....a very special tree
I never knew they grew to such a massive size and relatively quickly
Should make an excellent mast for your Bleriot

forgot to mention that shaping a wooden mast is one of the most pleasant ans satisfying things you can do with a stick of wood
wouldnt you agree Vic

Have you tapered your mast top. Ive tapered down to 50mm over the last meter.. Its traditional with wooden masts to paint the top 1/2 m or so white. I dont know why but it just looks proper and right. I suspect its so the rigging and attachments can be seen at night when sailing

I routed out my termites and glued a wooden piece into the mast. quite a common practice even in massive wooden spars.When you cut your slots foe the pulley can I suggest you paint the inside of the slot with a mixture of graphite powder and epoxy. Ive done that on my schooner to haul up a 12m gaff sail and I dont even have a pulley sheave, just the rounded out slot and the graphite epoxy

heres the next installment ,if youve been waiting. The rear chassis component which also mounts the steering and the sheeting horse. Ive built 2 versions of this .
The official one is 700mm wideand has machined bearing housings that have been welded in place to take either a 6004,ball bearing set or alternatively a set of 32004X tapercones. these will both take a 20mm bolt as the pin for the steering. the tubing for the sheeting horse is 20mm OD electrical conduit and the central brace is 12mm solid round. Bleriots original has a cable and turnbuckle as the central brace,Vic also used this, but Ive opted for a simpler solution. I believe the brace and bolted on tubes(ive welded mine) are in keeping with this yacjht being sold as a flat pack Kit that you could assemble yourself. this would also account for the variations on where the winch and steering are mounted. In the photos you will also see the narrower version Im puting together,only 600mm wide and Ive used 12mm solid instead of the conduit. very quick and easy to build. this back end also has a simpler tubing set up to take nylon bushes instead of bearings. the only "modern" material Im planning on the yacht

I also re-used the ply board from the mast hound as a base to set up the welding process for the rear

Finished the new mast for the Bleriot after snapping the last one, changed the size from 50mm dia to 75mm should be OK now.

Brilliant ! Looks just great
You really look the part in your getup Vic
Tres Bien

my humble apologies folks for letting my building grind to a halt. .I finally regained some control of things,put my foot down ,cleared a space in the shed and got back to work

here are 2 rear ends all welded up. I will do some plans and notes this week to accompany the pic ,but for now at least Im back on the case
it is worth noting in this pic that the mounting lugs are at 2 different widths to suit a 700 mm wide frame and a 600mm wide racing frame. I did feel rather pleased whwn i finished as its the first "me" day ive had in a while

yeah christmas . i have a 7 day building window to play in the shed. kitchen is well advenced and i cant make sanding dust as wifey just cleaned whole house. I located my 10m x8m shade sail and covered the frame down the back . now i have a space to set up and build. plan is to push on with the 700 wide version so I have something to race Vic with at walyungup. saw Vic yesterday,when he dropped in to pick up some acetylene lamps. branded Sons of Gwalia ,. very rare. so this afternoon Timbers sealed and ready to drill . will clean up steel and undercoat .paaint as i go

the seatback hoops were cold forgwed on the anvil out of 6x25 flat. Im noticing that this yacht simply eats up flat bar. Im on my second length. also need to stock up on conduit as that will be getting a hammering soon. the trick on the anvil was to use the same die that i used on the axle braces and slowly bend till it matched the wooden template I cut from scraps



next i wipped up some front seat supports and then the foot rests from 12mm rod and mooore flat. with this yacht being the wider 700mm model Ive fitted the foot bar inside the frame. vics is mounted externally I think. With the seat backs in place the yacht looks too wide. I suspect Vics 500mm wide machine will prove to the the better looking machine.800mm wide ( as advertized by bleriot)



would seem like a 2 seater