HI Steve, no access into the wheelhouse makes things a bit restricted, if the mast is brass its got a little bit of weight, so just epoxying to the roof will eventually fail, and all your hard work will sink into the lake, I would personally have some sort of locating pin attached to the base of each leg, drill the roof, and locate the pins into the roof, then glue on, at least you then have a more secure fixing, or save your brass mast, and make a light weight plastic one, using evergreen plastic products available at most hobby/model shops, or on line
The paint line should be straight, not curved up at the front, if you want to be as per real boat, its a swine to do, take the mark from the rear using some sort of home made scriber on a block at set height, make sure boat is level, or at least the correct attitude, and then you have a continuous straight line, going over the spray rails is very difficult. I used masking tape and just kept changing till I was satisfied it was straight, if boat is in primer, weigh it up to running trim weight, with weight displaced in the right place, and put it in the water, you will then get a wet line, and can compare with your drawn line, the white waterline is just that, water height, I cheated a bit so some of the red was visible to make the boat more attractive! 😀

Hi,
Many thanks, I have the Aerokits drawing and I can see the construction of it, I shall stick with a fixed mast for the time being unless I change the cabin roof then I might go for working side hinges. The boat is over 50 years old and did have a glow engine in it at one time and has seen some service, I might put a dumy engine back into it for effect, although it is a restoration job the filling and sanding of the wood hull is to come.
Steve.

HI Steve,
Have same boat, also made my mast of brass, but made a fitting that went through roof an fixed to roof supports, this allowed mast to be mounted conventionally so that it can fold forwards, the same as the real ones do.
Could supply photos and sketches to help, if you need them send me a p/m, it may take a couple of days to reply as I'm not at home till Wednesday 12 December.

Hi,
I have a 34" Fireboat which is being renovated and I am going to fabricate a mast in brass for mine, the legs of which will go through the cabin roof and be stuck with epoxy, I also do not have access to the inside. The side brackets (which alow the real mast to fold forward?) will again be epoxied in to place to support it. All this might change though when I get to it
Steve.

HI again, one pressing question I forgot to ask in my earlier post is the paint style of the Black & Red
Does the black of the sides extend parallel out to the bows
or does it curl upwards to follow the line of the chine stringer?

There seems to be a good number painted both ways..