Never say, ‘‘All is Done.’’

Seward, AK 18-JUN-2024 – Monday, or whatever the next day was that we left, things took an immediate left turn when the V-Belt on the water pump disintegrated. The light on the instrument panel for Electric came on. No alarm, but there it was. It would overheat next.

We opened the table to look at the engine. There was the belt completely off and lying there. I had two more belts in a white envelope on the settee, so I opened the package and put the belt on.

I should have foreseen this. The belts I’ve been buying are not metric. The V on the pulley in cross section is deeper than the belt. I need to tighten the belt after a few hours and I did not. I replaced the belt and made a note to check it when we stopped again. Jennifer pointed out I should check the impeller belt as well, even though it should have the correct V. That night I checked and both were loose. I tightened each and all is good.

Something else small malfunctioned, but all of that has been eclipsed by the reason we’re sitting at a dock in Seward, playing tourist and making friends.

We decided to come to Seward to fuel up. We’ve used more than half a tank and don’t want to stop in Whittier. The winds have been light and we have been motoring with the mainsail up. We motored across from Aialik Basin and turned left into Resurrection Bay. The wind picked and we decided to beat to windward to come up to Seward. We beat for 12 miles, nine miles in a straight line.

As we beat we started to notice a couple of things: The leeward shrouds seemed loser than they were in previous years, but perhaps I just hadn’t noticed. The dinghy which I had strapped down to the deck slid to leeward when Jennifer leaned against while she was skirting the Genoa. But, we were going hell-bent-for-leather and having a very good time.

Eventually, as it does in tight places, the wind stopped. The mast came vertical and all the shrouds we slack. None should be slack. Jennifer looked worried because she didn’t know what had happened. I looked worried because I did: The compression post had become compressed.

I damned myself because there was some electrolysis rot on the bottom of the post and it, no doubt, collapsed.

We arrived about 6.30pm, tied up at a transient dock, and then planned to go to dinner – Jennifer offered to take us out. I planned to leave everything until the next day to look at the damage, but Jennifer had to know. She looked the top of the post and to my surprise the post had crumpled. We opened the table to look at the bottom of the post and it was very sound and straight. Well, it wasn’t anything I did or didn’t do.

It never occurred to me to check the top of the post, but I had been looking for leaks and things and hadn’t noticed anything like this. Everyone I’ve spoken with has said they’ve never heard of such a thing, but then I contacted the Maxi 95 Facebook group. The immediate answer, yes, this was a problem in early boats. Well, I guess mine made it 50 years. Or did it?

The original boat came with the compression post sitting on fiberglass, the post would borrow its way in. This was fixed by placing an aluminum plate under the post. Mine has this fix. When was it done? I have no idea. Was a new post installed?

My original idea to fix this was to have a post made, jack up the deck and install a new post. There are a couple of problems. First, getting a post made and how tall? Someone in the Maxi group says 1703mm, which pretty much matched the 67” that I measured. But how much did the post collapse?

It looks like a couple of inches. To figure this out I measure how much slack was in each of the shrouds – disconnect each on in turn and measure the overlap to the turnbuckle. It is ¼” to ½”, that’s curious. But I think that’s all it needs to be. We’ll learn more soon.

Jennifer started reaching out to friends and I started working the phones. Jennifer spoke to a very nice man here who runs a B&B. He came by and spoke to us and convinced me to drop the mast. He has a bucket truck and we can use that to hoist up the mast and lie it somewhere. That will allow me to measure the length quietly. (scarily, as well.)

The post dimensions as 3-1/8” by 3-7/8”, or 80 by 90 mm. No one stocks anything in millimeters, so I started looking for 3” by 4” rectangular tube stock. It is not a stock size, but 3 by 5 is. So Tom, the man with the truck, will swing by metals warehouse in Anchorage and pick up a piece for me. Across the weekend, Badlands Welding Services will cut out the center and re-weld it to 3-7/8, so it will be an eighth too narrow (3” vs 3-1/8”), but everything else should be perfect, except the length, which I hope to know by Saturday.

Dropping a mast isn’t straight forward. I need to remove the Radar dome, which I’ll lead back to the cockpit, I need to detach the running lights (the connectors are under the table) and detach the VHF cable which is a continuous cable that I hope I don’t need to cut the end of off. I can’t for the life of me remember what I did last time I took down the mast.

I’ll read the blog and my calendar diary. I must have recorded something.

It can be nice and warm here in the afternoon, and in fact it was on Saturday and Sunday all day. It is quite cold here yesterday morning and this morning, with no sun and cold winds until late afternoon. We have enough solar to run everything, so all is good.

I’ll keep you apprised. Jennifer says we should have no trouble making it back by the first week in September. Of course, we can always leave the boat here and come back next year to do the trip. We don’t want to, but we have many choices.