Work on the masts continued, as I removed the shoe at the bottom of the mast and the two sheet winches.

To remove the finish (varnish in various stages of disrepair) I began with a once-over with a belt sander.

Some water stains were left over, but these will largely disappear during later rounds of sanding.

In at least one location, I found a bit of rot that will have to be removed and repaired. So far it seems that these will be minor repairs and not require scarfing in large pieces of new spruce.

Next, I removed the strip of spruce that elevated the mainsail track about 3/4″ from the mast. This strip is trapezoidal in cross section, and I will make a new strip. I could have, in principle, simply cleaned up and sanded the old strips, but the new track will require new screw holes, and I prefer to start fresh.

Apparently, the strip was bedded to the mast with glass. I will probably simply bed in thickened epoxy.

I made four supports which, in conjunction with clamps, I am able to support the mast so that the long sides are vertical.

This system helped me clean up the area under and surrounding the track, and will be useful when installing the new strip and track.

The masts are fairly well protected, but the ends of the main mast are close to the ends of the lean-to, so I protected the ends from rain with large garbage bags.

Next, I removed hardware and rigging from the mizzen mast.

Meanwhile, I rented a storage unit as a means to make room in the workshop and elsewhere, in preparation for indoor work through the winter. Some of the bulkiest piece of equipment are the sails, of which I have two mainsails, one mizzen, one spinnaker, one storm trysail, and about genoas. Most of the sails are as old as the boat, and only the mizzen main and the storm trysail are in decent enough condition to use. I will donate most of the sails to SEA-BAGS after removing some of the hanks from the genoas, and all of the slides from the mainsail.

Here is one of the slides on one of the mainsails.

Another ongoing project is the preparation of the decks and roof for painting, which will precede varnishing of the exterior teak. Everything begins with cleaning, sanding, cleaning again, and taping.

Here I have three coats of two-part primer on the roof, and one on the deck.