I am bulding a Skerry and I´m quite finished with it, except all the painting and rigging. So last week I could set uo the mast for the first time and I noticed that it moves quite a bit - at the top this is almost 4 inches. I mean the mastpartners just have enough scope to slip the mast in, some millimeters I guess, but if you rock the boat on its sawhorses the mast sways from side to side and makes quite some noise. I would not want this when the boat lies in the water.
So I wonder if I should wrap some protection around the mastfoot, or double the mastpartners. or I could use wedges of course to fix the mast wehn it`s in place.
Does anybody has experience with this task or maybe a good practice or hint.
I really liked the building and the beauty of this little boat, and I´m looking forward to sailing it next summer.
I did 2 things: I put some leather protection made from scrap leather (trimmed from the oar leathering) on the forward and aft edges of the upper mast step hole. Then I used pre-cut pinewood tapered shims (I can buy them in the lumber supply store here because they are used for final alignment of door and window frames) to get the mast with the proper rake and side-to-side alignment.
I cut the wedges short at the thickness needed for each wedge. Put one on the aft side of the lower mast step hole to put a little aft rake on the mast, then one on the forward side of the upper step hole to lock that angle in. Then side to side, added wedges.
Once I was happy, I labeled each shim where it went, with a line showing how deeply to insert it, and sealed them with epoxy for durability. I added some little string loops on them to make it easier to pull them out when de-rigging.
Thanks for your answerimng. That seems to be the perfect adjustment and fastening method. So I think i will get me some wedges, I have some pieces of the rail-scarfs left and they could be just right.
Yes, wedges/shims are the way to go. I put three in, between the mast and the mast step opening, every time I rig the Skerry. one in the front and one on each side, thin end first of course. Mine are cut from the yellow fibreglass epoxy spreaders that CLC sells.