The standard mast for a Drascombe Dabber is 14’ 6” long and about 2½” in diameter throughout its length. It requires three stays to enable it to support the 83 □ft mainsail. I convinced myself of this several years ago when contemplating converting from a standing lug to a dipping lug, by the simple expedient of removing the stays and tacking down to the stem head. On the calm waters of the river Itchen, in a light breeze sufficient only to move the boat at a couple of knots, the mast bent like a banana: at least two feet six deflection at the top, the bulk of the curve appearing in the upper portion of the mast. I did not continue the experiment.

For some time it had been my intention to try a junk rig on Rainbow, and the above-mentioned experiment made it clear to me that a stouter mast would be required. An idea of the sail area (140 □ft) to be carried and some instinct for the strength of wood suggested to me that something around the diameter of 4” at the thwart would be needed. Technical advice from Jim Smith — a mass of figures that at first I feared I should never fathom out — finally helped convince me my guess was not far out. There is a lot of truth in the old seaman’s adage... “If it looks right, it is right.”

According to technical books from the library, my mast 15’ 6” high and 3¼” diameter at base, tapering to 1⅞” at the top, should weigh 35 lb. The old mast complete with stays weighs 11½ lb. According to Eric Coleman, my tippy Dabber would fall over. Mind you, in deference to Eric, I must say our discussion was brief and scanty. Besides, he hasn’t got a Dabber!

During the Christmas holidays, 1980, I saw the local forester about procuring a larch pole. We also discussed Sitka and Doug. He could not find Sitka, and Doug is far too heavy; however, he could make a sale, and he gave me an estimate of £10 to £15. I dare say I could have bought a second-hand mast for the £12 I finally paid, but I had set my heart on doing the job myself, so I spent a few days in the woods gazing up larch trees to find a straight one of suitable dimensions — about five or six inches thick near the bottom.

Many trees seemed straight as a die from two or three directions, only to show themselves kinked from another standpoint. However, I marked several trees with chalk, receiving considerable abuse from a funny chap in shorts and long woolly socks using an O/S map to keep the rain off.

The forester was called out to make a final decision, and an hour or so was spent eliminating trees for some defect or other before we selected a good one from a stand of larch I had not previously considered.

January 10th, I rang his home, and he said the pole was down and the branches off. It took 1½ hours for me and a healthy nephew to cut a few feet off each end and cart the thing home on a granny trolley. The bathroom scales were brought outside and showed 8 st 7 lb. Ignoring the bark, the diameter at the base was 5” and 2½” at the top. Length 17’. The sail plan was decided upon, and I made an immediate saving in weight by cutting 18” off the fat end: it lost 1 stone (14 lb). Debarked, the mast weighed 6½ stone; circumference at the base 16½”, in the centre 13”, tapering to 8½” circumference at the top. I calculated that a mere ½” off all round would result in a weight loss of 50%. Amazing!

The bark was removed easily while fresh by hammer and chisel; later I was told it is even easier with a spade, and that the forester should have done it for me anyway. Although the tree was not perfectly round in section, I decided to remove wood equally all round by drilling a vast number of ½” deep holes to serve as a depth gauge so as not to cut too deeply. My reading suggested the best way to remove the wood was first to trim it square, then to octagonal, thence to round again. I felt I could better this by trimming it round in one go, but quickly gave up and started to follow book play. Using a draw knife is quite easy, but one must resist the temptation to remove too much at one stroke. The 18’-odd length was taken indoors to dry out in order to estimate the weight loss by evaporation; at first this was barely perceptible on my scales.

Some January days were dry enough to allow work to progress, and with approximately 3½ sides trimmed square, on Sunday the 18th it weighed 5 st 5 lb. Then it rained, so I put a cover over it. Sunday the 25th I forgot to weigh it before starting work, so I did not know how much weight loss to attribute to drying out, but the shavings were much drier than before, also the work was harder. To my amazement, after trimming the remaining section square it weighed in at 4 st 7 lb!!

My previous drilling had been copious but irregular, so I now carefully drilled along the untrimmed corners of my square mast and then trimmed it to octagonal shape. I was disappointed to find that all this work resulted in only a 7 lb weight loss. Later in the month I trimmed it to round section; 5 hours work led to only a 3 lb weight loss — in the mast, that is! A slight kink appeared in the mast, but revolving it revealed one superbly straight line, and I cut the square section for the mast step to align it fore and aft. By February the mast weighed 3 st 6 lb. I was a bit worried at the weight, and I took the drastic step of removing a further ⅛” from around the bottom 7 - 8 ft. I regretted it immediately, because the weight was reduced by barely 1 lb. Of course, I was removing the driest wood, that on the outside. This ¼” loss in diameter reduces the strength much more than I gained from immediate weight loss. At the mast gate, the mast now measures 3¾” x 3½”, i.e. not quite circular.

The final surfacing of the mast was very easy. I glued strips of sandpaper to lengths of cloth about three feet long and 3” wide, and simply worked it to and fro athwart the mast as I walked along from one end to the other. The short end of wood indoors had now lost 30% weight and was severely cracked, so I started applying generous coats of wood preservative to the mast to delay the drying out process. By 1st March 1981 the weight was 38 lb.

The mast thwart of the Dabber is one inch thick only and has a hole in the middle for the mast. I copied the basic pattern but used 2½” thick teak (weight 16 lb) to bring the point of support higher. As my new mast was much heavier, I cut a hole from the aft end of the thwart right through to the centre of the 10” wide teak and bought an ex-naval mast gate from Aladdin’s Cave, Bursledon, also a three-eye spiderband for the top. The top four inches of the mast were cut to a point to discourage seagulls and rainwater.

So far only one small split has appeared near the base of the mast, which receives fairly frequent applications of linseed oil. Because of the mast gate, I find the bare mast easier to erect than the old one. Complete with spiderband in April, the total weight was only 24 lb., the loss by evaporation finally exceeding all my hopes. The junk rig itself I hope to describe later.