Making Wooden Spars Part 1 of 5

Overview of the skill:
A spar is a general term for any mast, yard, boom, gaff, bowsprit, etc. on a vessel and nowadays they can be made from wide range of materials including wood, metals such as aluminium and the more exotic materials like carbon fibre. However, our focus is on a standard solid mast seen on small and big vessels alike.

The process demonstrated can be scaled up and down to suit the application, once the basics are understood. The mast being made is for a Mayflower sailing dingy and will be demonstrated by Marcus Lewis.

Materials:
Suitable wood i.e. spruce

Equipment:
Mast design (drawing or pattern of mast to copy)
Saw horses
Spar gauge
Clamps
Straight edge (aluminium sail track)
Mast blocks
Hand plane
Hand saw
Electric planers
Mast round planer
Electric drill
Sander
Router
Square
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
Pencil

Technique:
The process is demonstrated in the accompanying video clips with a step-by-step guide.
The conversation with the boat builder, in this case, Marcus Lewis is unscripted and
covers the technique from his experience.

Part 1
· Step 1 ~ the design and plan for the spar, in this case a mast for a Mayflower
· Step 2 ~ planing the first tapers
· Step 3 ~ marking the front taper
· Step 4 ~ planing the front taper

Part 2
· Step 5 ~ using a spar gauge to mark out the mast to convert it from 4 sides to 8
· Step 6 ~ removing the corners to convert the mast from 4 sides to 8

Part 3
· Step 7 ~ going from this 8-sided shape to 16 by removing the corners again
· Step 8 ~ converting the 16-sided shape to 32
· Step 9 ~ final planing from 32 sides to nearly round
· Step 10 ~ using a sander to get the final round shape for the mast

Part 4
· Step 11 ~ after the initial shaping, key measurements need to be checked
· Step 12 ~ cut the mast to length
· Step 13 ~ mark out the mast step and plane the taper
· Step 14 ~ mark the top of the mast and cut the shoulder for the mast band

Part 6
· Step 15 ~ mark out the mast's sheath
· Step 16 ~ fitting the mast band