The mast sits in a parallel sided cup made of plastic with the bulkhead supporting it sideways and the pieces of timber on the floor supporting it fore and aft, with the whole thing wrapped in heavy glass, which is what you can see at the bottom. The bearing can't be seen in the photo.
The mast rotated easily enough without load, was a bit more difficult under load, partly as the bearing surfaces are not perfect. Shunting, anyone who didn't have a job would tend to push/pull it to speed it up, but this was more a function of the unbalanced sail loads than the bearings sticking.
regards,
rob
On Wed, Mar 7, 2012 at 7:24 PM, heinrich_meurer <meurer@geotec-exploration.de> wrote:
Rob
thanks a lot for the report and the nice pics - and the promise that there are more to come. Regarding the mast bearing pic - what are we seeing there. The bottom of the mast rotating on some sort of very flat bearing? Or is the entire structure the bearing and the mast invisible? How easy does the mast rotate. Can/could you rotate it by hand with no sails up?
Thanks
Heinrich
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