How I Repaired a Pond Yacht!

After walking my lovely dog through the local park and having a coffee opposite at what was/is our local boat pond when I was a young lad where I used to sail my “Birkenhead Star Pond Yacht”, I began scrolling through Pond Yachts in Google, then eBay. Bugger me sideways some are expensive but with a little detective work, you can find a few that could be repaired I suppose. 

Then out of the vast array a small 15” Bowers Yacht caught my eye for the princely sum of £45. Now how do I get this past Mrs H. I know she loves to have the grandchildren around on a Friday, that’s my excuse then, “When I’ve repaired it we can take the kids down to play with it.”

A couple of days later there it was waiting for me to return from work. Sadly, it did need a bit of a repair just as it said in the eBay ad.  I guess it had been dropped on its mast which had broken. It also looks like it had been re-rigged at some point in its life with ordinary kitchen string, which was very frail, nope rotten, let’s not guild the Lilly here and it was very grubby and tired looking.

If you would leave a comment I would love to hear from you both pro and cons. It helps me learn how to make things. Thankyou.

So, first, let’s photograph it in all its shabby glory. 

Step 1: Check the State of Play

Having done that, it was time to assess the state of play.

Broken mast and split the length of it, check.

Split to boom at mast, check.

Rigging, rotten old string, check.

Keel, light rust, check.

Rudder bent a little bit, check.

Sails dirty but serviceable, check.

The deck and hull paint, dirty but not in bad shape and has a good patina, check.

Step 2: Designing the Mast Head

Right then let’s start with the difficult part, how to join the mast to the deck seeing as the original mast. I did consider cutting off the broken section of the mast where it joins the deck and then drilling out the remainder of the mast, but concerned that I might damage the whole boat and that in the future should the same thing happen, it would be most likely that the boat be just thrown away.

Off to Fusion 360 (free version) and I designed this, which I imaginatively call Mast Repair Kit.

Saved off to my PC and imported into Prusa Slicer with a total advised print time of 3 hrs 15 mins, using 14,25 g of PETG for the grand price of £0.43, bargain. Another piece of plastic being printed, Mrs H.

(pictures here). This is version 2 which is significantly smaller than V1. These components were then printed out on my Ender 3 S1 Plus in PETG. Why PETG? Because it is, I am reliably informed resistant to water.

For the Fusion 360,STL files et al click here INSERT URL TO PRUSA SLICER

Step 3: Clearing the Decks

Next on the list was to strip down the mast and sails. And measure all the bits I’ll need to purchase.

Oops Sorry, no pictures here as I forgot to take them for this section.

The original mast and boom was a 10 mm doweling rod but my local B&Qs only have 9mm, £6 for 1m, what 1mil between friends, but 6 quid, pick me up off the floor and call me Jenny.

Next, removed the broken mast stub with a Lidl Japanese fine-toothed saw after which I drilled with a 10mm wood drill bit about 10mm of the bit left in the hull to accommodate the Mast Head. 

Then all the tatty string snipped off and down to my local fabric shop where I bought 6 meters of No1 (1.5mm dia.) cord for £2.50, more like it, okay enough of the Jenny guys. Amazon link for illustration purposes.

Now for the rusty keel, into the garage and out with some emery paper and rub the metal work down, after which a wipe down with some Isopropyl Alcohol. Masking tape off everything but the keel with some Frog tape, followed by a fine coat of Acid Etch primer. Now I understand some may say I’m contradicting myself here when I earlier stated that the hull had a nice patina but the rust on the keel has the potential to leave marks etc on furniture and come on a black keel and rudder on a nice blue boat. Has to be white, doesn’t it? Anyway, it was all that I had in the cupboard, White Radiator paint. I was surprised at how quickly the spray painting took and interspersed with other bits to do it was done in a couple of hours.

The mast and boom were cut to length, by simply copying the same dimensions of the original items. With a small piece of 120 grit sandpaper, the doweling was put in the chuck of my hand drill and sanded to a dull point to replicate again the original.

Also, I marked where the original rigging holes were and using a 2mm drill bit accomplished the necessary holes. I checked that the cord I was using would go through without too much finagling, perfect. Then a quick rub down with some antique pine polish just to give it a sympathetic patina to the boat.

The Mast and Boom Heads finished printing and with an M3 12mm screw and a Nyloc nut, they were now joining in a happy and symbiotic union for life. 

Back to the garage and a quick spray of the keel, and a rummage in my screw draws from which I return to my study with 4 x M3 20mm Pozi countersunk screws to attach the Mast Head repair component to the hull tomorrow when all the paint has been given enough time to cure.

Step 4: Refitting Takes Place

Now it was time to put it all together, the masthead was positioned over the hole in the deck and after making sure it was square and central four hole positions marked, and pilot holes drilled.

Screwing the screws in was a little concerning as I was worried it might cause more damage to the hull, but those fears were misplaced all went swimmingly.

I did consider glueing the mast and boom into their respective positions but again I thought, if the mast gets broken in the future it would be far simpler to replace them just by pulling them out, and in any case I had designed in an interference fit to hold them firmly in place.

Next, tie the sails to the mast and boom, this was not an easy task but was successfully achieved after a lot of fiddling and tweaking, again following the same pattern as the original, well nearly. I’m sorry but despite being a Boy Scout in my youth knots were never my strong point, I got 10 out of 10 for my granny knot so that is what was used here, if you know a better way then fill your boots. Leave a comment in the comment section down below.

Lastly, proudly wandered into the lounge with one completed repair going “Ta Daa”, as I walked past Mrs H, her comment was, “Where are you putting that?” 

Step 5: Maiden Voyage......................

Down to the park to give her, her maiden voyage post repair. Well, that went well, not. She capsized, yup fell over, just like my daughter who has no experience whatsoever said would happen and my granddaughter laughed her socks off and rinsed me something rotten.

So here is a word of WARNING. I spoke to an elderly gent, who was watching from a nearby cafe and happened to have built his toy yacht, although he calls them Model Yachts, yes, he was very particular about that. Anyway on with the story. He said regardless of what you put top side after effecting any repairs, you must, MUST test her in the bath. Even a couple of grams can make the difference between fun and not fun. So I will pay a visit to the local fishing tackle shop for some split lead weights tomorrow.

A video of the capsizing I hear you ask, sorry no, she capsized to quickly for me to do anything, least of all video the disaster.

Mrs H walked off with the grandsons muttering something under her breath towards the nearby play park.