Fix for mast compression
The crack in the arch shown is truly worrisome. My Bristol 24 had no such crack, but I noticed that the "compression post," ie, port-side door frame, was not supported by anything but the 3/4" plywood sole structure, and had deflected downwards a little (maybe 1/2" or so). To make everything more secure, I cut out the sole in the forward cabin, and a 3" piece off the forward end of the main cabin sole (for clearance during installation), and trimmed about 3" off the bottom of the portside bulkhead, in order to install a 2" x 6" (true dimensions) fir floor under the bulkhead. I shaped it to fit, slid it in from aft, and glassed it firmly to both sides of the hull leaving a gap of about 4" underneath in the bilge. Then I made a new "compression post" out of ash, routing the same groove for the bulkhead, rebate for the door, and tenon for the arch as the original, but about 2.5 x the cross sectional area of the original and fitted it very tightly between the new floor and the arch and screwed it to the bulkhead. This baby is strong! Remember that the mast step has to be able to handle a peak load of about 2.5 x the displacement of the boat--15,000 lbs. I next filled in the missing piece of cabin sole, and am in process of fabricating a new fiberglass sole for the forward cabin which I am fitting with a teak grating to serve as an area for private sun shower baths.I have non-digital photos of the stages of the above project.