When we bought Rad Mode, she came with a never-built Lefiell OM3D mast kit. The time has finally come to put her together and yesterday, Éowyn and I got started on her.
We began with a quick-over on the sander with 220 grit. It seemed like time and exposure
to elements had created some small high points that basically covered the mast from top to bottom and on all sides. It came off very fast.
After that, it was on to cutting the bottom of the mast so that we can lower it in our tabernacle base. In hindsight, I probably should have done this last instead of first since it makes it a little harder to measure out the location of mast parts with half of the bottom missing. Whoops.
Then it was on to the winch plates. I have the original Lefiell instructions along with the W32 plans and together, they made a lot of sense. It was easy to drill the holes out. I’ll have to tap them later (most of them 1/4-20) since the Dewalt 1/4-20 drill, tap, countersink combo bit I bought on Amazon was complete crap. High Speed Steel my eye. I broke it off on my third test tap. Don’t waste your time buying one.
Here’s some pics from the day!
Anyways, construction continues tomorrow and by the end of the day, I hope the mast will look close to 2/3 done! We continue to move forward with only 44 days left before we leave the marina!
J
Sailing Rad Mode 