Copernicus

FREE-STANDING MASTS

POOH STICKS II

Fig. 1. Pooh Sticks II in New Zealand

Owner Leith McIntosh of New Zealand was one of my early clients--1985--for a free-standing mast design for his A.N. Wright-designed 10.43 Meter cat-ketch Pooh Sticks II. He wrote a while back saying he happened onto my website and thought it would be nice to catch up with news that he has been sailing Pooh Sticks II ever since her launch in 1992. He sent along these photos, and told me the story of building the masts. To quote from Leith's emails:

"I chose to design the mandrels to construct the masts on. That involved a lot of head scratching, but I ended up with two very good looking masts. The mandrels were constructed from medium density polystyrene foam cut to the exact shape using a hot wire
cutter which I designed and perfected myself after wasting a lot of foam. The foam is still in the masts and contributes to the crush resistance of the masts.

"Briefly, I made formica templates of each mast cross section at 5' intervals, complete with internal halyard holes. I then pinned a pair of templates, one on each end of a five foot length of foam and using the hot wire cutter, produced one 5' section of mast mandrel. I
repeated this until all of the sections were complete. The reinforcing inserts replaced the foam where needed and the entire mast mandrel was epoxied together and strung on a very tight steel cable at working height above the floor. (When cutting each section, I included a 1" hole down the centre into which a PVC pipe was pushed right through)
The PVC pipe prevented the cable from chewing into the foam as the lay-up proceeded and the mast was rotated on the cable. Once the lay-up was completed, the mast was vacuum bagged and the weight of the mast suspended on 'A' frames over the mast using the plastic vacuum bag. A tent over the 'A' frames then allowed the mast to be cooked.

"The actual lay-up weights for the masts was 80 lbs for the mizzen and 123 lbs for the main. I have not weighed the finished masts.

"I'm delighted to find you are still in business and hope this finds you
in good health. Great to catch up again - take care.

"Kind regards - Leith"

Figs. 2 and 3. Pooh Sticks II's masts with sails.

Those are pretty respectable weights for free-standing masts of that size. It is always nice to hear from clients that not only is your work appreciated, but that it has held up all these years. I love the name Pooh Sticks II--how appropriate. I have always been a fan of A.A. Milne's Pooh stories and poems, having read them over and over again to my children as bedtime stories. They particularly liked my impersonation of Eeyore, who played with Pooh and Piglet in the game Pooh Sticks in the story, In Which Pooh Invents a New Game and Eeyore Joins in.

One of my favorite Milne poems:

From And Now We Are Six

The End

When I was One,
I had just begun.
When I was Two,
I was nearly new.
When I was Three
I was hardly me.
When I was Four,
I was not much more.
When I was Five, I was just alive.
But now I am Six, I'm as clever as clever,
So I think I'll be six now for ever and ever.

Stories like Leith McIntosh's makes one feel 6 years old.

UPDATE ON POOH STICKS II

Leith McIntosh wrote again recently to say that Pooh Sticks II had a bit of bad luck over the winter of 2007-08. Seems a strong wind came along--gusting up to 90+ knots!--and drove Pooh Sticks II up onto the beach near Leith's home in New Zealand.

She hit a workboat on the way to the beach, and then sat there for six tides before she could be pulled off. Pooh Sticks II got holed on her port side and had lots of other pounding damage, including a bent up stainless steel stemhead fitting. But the masts were not damaged at all. Leith surmizes that a stayed rig probably would have not survived those conditions.

Happily, Pooh Sticks II is fully repaired and back sailing again, as the last photo shows. We wish Leith and Pooh Sticks II many more years of happy sailing.

For more information on our nearly indestructible mast designs, you may write to us on the Contact Us page, or simply give us a call.