Mizzen making

Woodbridge Boatyard's Matt Lis explains how he replaced a mizzen mast on the ketch Peter Duck

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Here's a question: if a mast breaks in a marina and nobody is there to hear it, did it really happen? Well, sadly, yes, and it won't take long for everybody to hear about it.

In my case, it took about 10 minutes to hear about it when, late on a Sunday evening, the work mobile rang and I answered to find Julia close to tears. A misjudged approach into a marina berth in semidarkness had led to Peter Duck's portside mizzen shroud catching on the cranse iron of a neighbouring boat.

For those less familiar with the peculiarities of traditional boat rigging, the cranse iron is the fitting on the end of a bowsprit onto which the bobstay, forestay and bowsprit shrouds attach, and it's designed to handle immense loads, so had no trouble winning this particular battle.

With a sickening splintering, Peter Duck's 70-year-old hollow mizzen spar had broken close to its gooseneck fitting, the swivelling fitting which connects the boom to the mast.

I hopped in the van and soon we had the mizzen safely on deck with its wiring disconnected, and the problems could wait for the insurance office to open the next day.

Work begins

With approval from Peter Duck's insurers, timber was ordered. Peter Duck's masts are both made of Sitka spruce, a fantastic timber for spar making due to its terrific strength and light weight. Spar-grade spruce comes from Canada and is increasingly hard to buy in long, high-quality lengths suited to mast making, but through a close relationship with specialist importers we're still able to source what we need.

There are many ways to make a wooden mast, all with pros and cons. The simplest are solid, round poles like a telegraph pole (some of them actually are repurposed telegraph poles), some are made in two halves, and some are made of many staves of timber that are glued together.