The world's tallest yacht mast was made by VTHalmatic at its Porchester facility and taken to Southampton on the barge you see in our picture.

The 90m hollow carbon epoxy mast, which has a maximum cross section of 1.6 metres and structural thickness of up to 40mm, will - eventually - support some 3400 square metres of sail.

Manufactured in halves, with the back half comprising two sections and the front half divided into three sections.

The mast was vacuum bagged and cured at 70ºC.

Carbon compression tubes coincide with each of the five swept-back spreaders. Some five tonnes of cabling have been fitted in the mast, including a mass of sensors to monitor the sail performance.

Finally, the sections of the mast were glued together using an epoxy adhesive.

The mast was being dressed as this was being written. A team of 30 riggers was working on the spar that, because of the swept-back spreaders, was already some five or six metres off the ground. And there's a long way to go yet?. .

Two or three cranes will perform a synchronised lift to get the mast into the boat.

Once the spar is in the boat it will take around six hours to connect the rigging.

With the mast is in place, one brave rigger will go aloft to release the lifting strop. It's a 90m spar. Not far off the deck, the halyard will weigh rather more than the rigger. So he will need a couple of good men down below to stop him being extruded through the masthead sheave.

The mast is due to be stepped on December 28 or 29 and requires absolutely zero wind conditions.

As this was written, we had high pressure sitting on us in the south: wonder if it'll still be there come the end of the month?