S&S Swan Association

38/069 Carissima

Complete and well documented restoration of deck hardware and new teack deck, 2017/2018, and the design/build of a new Anchor Locker. Job done by Klaus and Silke Andrews, all photos by Klaus Andrews.

The lower end of the mast of CARISSIMA, Swan-38/ 69, was rather corroded, 50 years after her maiden voyage went the wall partly thin like a knife. Specially the last five centimeters where the mast stands in the iron mast shoe. We were really afraid about loosing the rigg under hard weather.

So what to do? One previous owner tried to fix the problem by inserting a collar of GRP. But this only forced the corrosion. We contacted a company in the field of equipment construction, Werner Kluge Engineering GmbH in Kiel, Germany, ( www.WernerKluge.de ). The company is specialized in one off parts as well for a number of renowned yards and yacht builders. They produced a new part for our mast by milling from solid aluminium.

We cut the lower 12 centimeter of the mast exactly rectangular by using a metal saw. The cut off piece was used by WernerKluge for CAD/CAM. The new mast foot sticks about 8 centimeters inside the mast, is sealed by an o-ring and a thin layer of SIKA to provide moisture between mast and new foot piece.

We pressed the new foot into the mast by using TefGel and a rubber mallet. The TefGel will prevent the aluminum surfaces from contact and corrosion.