MAST FITTING AND TABERNACLE.
The tabernacle for lowering the mainmast is a matter of importance. The ordinary method is to cut a well through the deck for the mast heel to travel in (as described for the Nautilus racing canoe, page 425) ; but, as the bow of a canoe is very frequently immersed when working in rough water, it is undesirable to have any opening in the deck. The tabernacle is thus fitted : Two pieces of oak placed in the ordinary form of a tabernacle, c (Fig. 124), secured at the heels by a block (G), and passing up through a blocking piece under the deck a (Fig. 124), and through the deck b. The two heads are each hin. high by 21in. wide fore and aft, and half an inch thick, the heels being considerably tapered off for lightness ; (c) in the sketch is a blocking piece, firmly bolted in between the uprights, and let through the deck and deck block. Against this the mast heel lodges. The mast heel should be 1 sin. square, from heel to half an inch above the tabernacle ; then round and taper to lin.
at head. The mast is bolted between the tabernacle heads, at three-eighths of an inch from the top of the heads at d. At e is a through bolt, on to which, between the heads, the halyard blocks hook. The mast heel and the outer sides of the tabernacle heads should be brass plated, and there should be a small piece of indiarubber screwed on the heel as a buffer (G). The mast is set up by a forestay, which should be small
galvanised wire about one-tenth of an inch in diameter, from the swivel clip (clipped to a thimble in the masthead block strop) down to a small single block, which, when the mast is up, comes about four inches above the stem-head. The fall is fast to stem-head, and then leads through the stay block and _through the stem block or cheek sheave, and into a cleat near the well. So long as the mast is set up, the halyard blocks f cannot be unshipped from the bolt e, but when the mast is lowered as far as shown by the dotted line, the halyard blocks can be unhooked.
The mast is fitted with a ferrule joint at 4ft. 6in. above the tabernacle pin, and then the upper portion, 4ft., including a 6in. ferrule to ship over lower mast, makes a total of 8ft. 6in. pin to truck. With the exception of unclipping the forestay, all the gear remains on the masthead, and the sail is kept on the upper part of the mast, with its halyards bent on and parcels in sailing position.