C270 Ceiling Cracks Caused By Mast-Step?

[David Branby]

I was looking at buying a 1993 C270 today and one thing that concerned me is that there is fairly significant cracking on the interior ceiling right where the mast is stepped. In fact, it looks like you can see the mast footing bolts sort of impressing down through the ceiling in a 4 - 5 inch radius from the "post" underneath the mast step. Is this a common occurrence with 270s? Is it something that needs repair, will it eventually fail, or is it merely cosmetic?Thanks to any and all replies. DB

 

[John]

mast step

HI Dave I would first find out what the problem is check around the mast step see if its wet . Then look around the cabin floor and see if its pushing down around the mast step.If the floor is pushing down ,check under the floor at the mast block .Drill a 3/8 hole in the block check the wood for water if the wood is dark and wet its roted , and needs to be replaced. The caben floor needs to be pushed up into positionn .Id loose all the bulkheads around the head and re tighten after the job was done and the mast was back on the boat.If the deck reads wet thats another problem.You need to remove the mast step and check in the holes for rot. some times the step is just wet around the mast plate .Some times there is plywood core that just sucks water thru the grain and the hole piece of ply is wet.I think since you see the lag screws showing thru .It would be wet and compressing down.I would remove the glass skin around the step then remove the wet wood and replace it with glass layup. Re glass around the step and sand smooth. You will need to make some nonskid smooth white around the work so it can be finished .Gauhar marine makes a mast plate to mount under the mast to take the load and it hides some of the work.I would paint the work with epoxy one part paint.gel coat is a pain to work with and dose not stick well to epoxy .I think you could DIYS with time and some tools. Ive done this job afew times on C 30s and it looks ok when its done and i never had a re do.I work for food and beer Im in a club in a small lake 32 Mil long. There are lots of very well todo people. but most of them cant fix a hole in a paper bag with tape.When i bought my boat i new nothing about this stuff (8 years ago).Ive seen Quotes for 5000 bucks but very few people pay it or have the work done. There a lots of C27 and you would need to get a deal on this boat. John

 

[Phil Agur]

What wood? This is a C270

John,There are 30+ significant design upgrades in the C270 construction over the C27. Catalina did an excellent job of tracking how the C27 fleet aged, as well as, taking note of the 42 structural improvements made to Jaggernaught prior to her successful circumnavigation. The result was the offshore rated C270. The C270 compression post is aluminum and it is attached into a fiberglass structure bonded directly to the hull with a molded conduit channels running under the mast. Overhead the ceiling is a molded liner which is bonded to but not actually a structurally part of the deck sandwich. I suspect what happened is someone made a misguided attempt to strengthen the mast step with longer screws and there tips cracked the liner.