Replaced the tabernacle on our O'Day Day Sailer II CYANE, the old one was bent from a tangle with a tree in 2011. The old tabernacle was bent and patly straightened, which made it hard to insert and remove the hinge pins. The new tabernacle came from D&R Marine, who specializes in O'Day parts. For those considering switching over to the tabernacle, check to see if you'll need the mast step as well, some boats will. The tabernacle also comes with 6 screws to attach the upper and lower hinges to the mast, and installation instructions.
But first, which hat to wear? I don't have an O'Day hat so I picked Drascombe instead.
Here's the old upper mast hinge, it is held on by 5 screws. 3 are normally required, but our mast has a cheek block added on both sides to route the main and jib halyards aft to the top of the cuddy opening, versus cleating off on the mast. So there are 2 extra screws on the bottom of the cheek blocks that have to come out. I used an impact driver to get the screws out, they backed out easily.
There is some evidence of bending from the tangle with the tree. Okay, time for the tree story. We had just moved in to our new place in 2011 and rigged the boat in our driveway. Spoiler alert, funny story, no one got hurt. Our neighbor offered to let us use his boat ramp and we hooked CYANE up to his lawnmower. He headed across his yard, direct to the ramp, and we found out he wasn't familiar with sailboats as he went right under a pine tree. I hollered to try and get him to stop but he couldn't hear me over the motor and the Canadian Mist. The forestay tang pulled out and the mast came down, the tree just kind of pushed it over. The tabernacle bent a little, then the upper mast section pulled out of the upper hinge plate, leaving the screws behind. Not much damage overall, mostly a bent tabernacle and 3 small bits of upper mast gone. It was supposed to be our maiden voyage and as it turned out it was a good thing we didn't go, while repairing the forestay tang I discovered that the previous owner had used silicone sealant to hold in the forward screw, we call that a "rubber nut," the screw was stripped. So only one of two screws was holding on the forestay tang, the aft screw. I tried a screw one size up for the repair and luckily it snugged down nice. We bent the tabernacle mostly back into shape. I also trimmed off about the bottom 1/2 inch of the upper mast and drilled new holes for the screws. For some reason still unbeknownst to me, the mast actually fit better afterwards, we no longer needed a spacer on the forstay tang and the side stays snugged down with more turns on the turnbuckle. I wonder if the gent who cut the mast for the forestay in 2000 just made one cut and did not cut out the representative section of mast that the tabernacle replaced?
Old section of upper mast hinge.
Upper mast. Yes, that's flotation material.
Fit test for new tabernacle.
We used our old stainless machine screws, the drill size for the new pilot holes was 5/32". The screws that come with the new kit were a couple of 32nds bigger. For the basic installation there is one screw on the forward edge and a screw on either side about 135 degrees around. The forward screw has already been installed in this photo.
Halyard cheek block screws to go.
Upper hinge finished. At this point I realized that we had just installed the larger outer hinge plate on the upper mast, but the old hinge we just took off was the smaller inner hinge. Hmmmm, did I need to change it around or does it matter? I went to find the instructions to double check, and interestingly the instructions show the outer hinge plate installed on the upper mast, like I had just done but opposite how it had been. So the old tabernacle was upside down, not sure why or if it mattered, it had worked just fine for 19 years. From my perspective though, the "right way" gives the upper mast a bigger foot and it is easier to get the the hinge pins started on the wiggly upper mast.
On to the lower mast hinge. It couldn't be easy, could it? A stainless rivet had been used, so I had to drill that out. I hate stainless rivets, especially in aluminum masts.
The old hinge plate is noticeably bent.
New hinge plate installed with 2 old screws and one new screw where the rivet had been. The two centered tangs are where we connect the boom vang. The tang to the left is used to tie a lanyard to the hinge pins. Capn Jack made those, he was an Aviation Structures Mechanic (Hydraulics) in the Navy, and he knew a thing or two about metal, and fabric for that matter.
The two blocks are used for the spinnaker and spinnaker pole halyards, led aft.
Look close at the hinge pins, one end is chamfered, which makes it a little easier to insert. We put that pin forward, it will be in use at the most critical times of raising and lowering the mast. We were playing around with the forward pin here, it needs to be removed before the mast comes up. Aft pin is inserted with upper mast pinned.
Capn Jack's dummy cord aka lanyard to keep track of the hinge pins, we don't want those to go missing at a critical time. I wonder if there is a story behind that cord, do you think a pin rolled away one day while he had the mast verical? He attached keeper rings to the cotter pins and dummy corded the keepers to the extra tang. Another thing we did was flatten down the ends of those cotter pins, lest they snag a jib sheet or a finger. Speaking of jib sheets, that is the only issue we have had with the tabernacle, sometimes a jib sheet gets caught under the forward lip of the hinge. Not letting there be a lot of slack in the sheet helps prevent that, and a quick flick of the sheet usually pops it free.
Mast in crutch, aft hinge pinned, ready to raise mast. Before we raise the mast though, look at that crusty topping lift line! It has lichen growing on it. "A lichen is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship." That doesn't sound good, we do know that ospreys perche on top of the mast periodically, and the inconsiderate ones poop before they take off. Wonder if that has anything to do with lichen?
Anyway, it was a good time to replace the line with new 1/8th inch diameter Dacron cord from New England Ropes. We keep 50 foot packs of it handy, a little more than we need today but we'll get it trimmed once the mast is up and the boom is on. We added the little cheek block at the top of the mast about 9 years ago, the topping lift keeps the boom out of the cockpit when the sail is down, and makes it easier to gather up the sail and secure it to the boom. Then we can put a cover on our sail, which we have on slugs, and keep the sail on the boat. The horizontal boom then makes a nice ridgepole to put a cockpit tent over or a storage cover.
Small cleat towards the base of the upper mast for topping lift.
Mast up, hinge pins in and keepers ringed.
Yay, done for the day, let's put the tools away....annnnnnd that's how the cookie crumbles...My Uncle's tool kit from 1995, the plastic hinge finally broke. Amazingly I found all of the pieces. Too bad Skipper wasn't nearby to see this, she loves the look on my face when this kind of thing happens. A facebook buddy saw this and commented he had the same thing happen to him, but over water.
One last thing, we need to move over the mast step dime over to the new tabernacle and then we'll be ready for the raise the mast.
Materials:
Tabernacle
and Mast Step.
Log of CYANE.
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