Deck Sag at Mast Step

[Hale Meakipe]

Have a 85 Catalina 30 berthed in San Diego. While having rig work completed riggers noted that there appears to be "deck sag" in the area of the mast step. Rigger explain this is a "common" problem with Cat 30s. Has anyone else experienced this issue? If so what are the remedies (replace marine plywood layer) and how much should I anticipated spending?

Thanks,
George Brown

 

[jimmcgee]

There's a sticky thread at the top of the C30 section titled "C30mkiii compression block issues?" that talks about the two possible causes and their fixes.

 

[jrowan]

This is an expensive & time consuming fix. The problem of mast sag is not the plywood between the keel stub & bilge. Its the wooden compression block installed at the front of the bilge under the compression post. Unfortunately the bilge water slops around this wooden block which rots it out. As the upper post linked there are many discussion threads on how to fix this. Some sailors use hardwood such as teak or mahoghany to replace the post as its easier to shape in wood. Others have made replacement blocks from aluminum & starbrite type epoxy blocks. The repair is best done when the mast has been removed to take the load off of the post. Unless you want to pay a yard several thousand $$ to do the work, you can save a ton of money on labor costs doing the repair yourself, but its time consuming. Good luck.

 

[jimmcgee]

jrowan, not always. A friend of mine had water intrusion in the deck around his mast. The water rotted the plywood and allowed the mast to sink at the deck.

One of the yard guys speculated the cracks that let the water in were from having his standing rigging too tight. Not sure if he'll ever know for sure, but it was a pretty extensive fix.

Jim

 

[jrowan]

This is indeed a possibility, but usually any rot in the deck is readily visible & apparent, as the deck will be spongy under foot & will have depression cracks dircectly around the mast. The original post didn't mention if there were cracks present or not. Of course everything that we comment on here is subjective & without seeing any detailed pictures it really all just conjecture & advice based on limited info. Right?

 

[Bob4203]

A good way to monitor is the head door and if it sticks when you open or close. You can see that at the very top where the door CAN hit the ceiling. If its starting to bind, that "sagging" must be addressed.

Bob