Whangarei, New Zealand

By: Kerry

It’s been frustrating. It’s been a steep learning curve. It’s been exhausting. We could have bought a whole new boat for the price of it. But we now have a very big, black, shiny new mast.

It’s quite different to our old mast, save that it’s also built of carbon fibre. This time around, we’ve taken steps to ensure it ain’t going to topple over again: we now have spreaders (as opposed to a free-standing spar) and newly-engineered chain plates on the coach house roof (a failed chain plate was what caused the dismasting) and it’s now black instead of white. There are numerous other modifications, and the erection process was a tad nerve-wracking (see pix) but suffice to say it’s now upright and we’re ready to rock and roll.

The 21-metre mast had to be trucked from Auckland, over the Brynderwyn Ranges – a really narrow, winding stretch of Highway 1.

The boys lifting the mast off the trailer- it took five of them.

Damian opening his belated Christmas pressie

The crane getting ready to lift the mast (on the ground). Taken from the foredeck

Mast mid-way up…

The crane positioning the mast

Bart the mast builder guiding the mast onto the mast base.

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