DIY Mast Boot Ideas? Catalina 36

[CloudDiver]

I'm posting this here because this topic applies to any boat of similar rig/mast section etc.
Yes, I did search the forum but mostly came up with off the shelf mast boots... Going to WM and opening my wallet is too easy, LOL. I like to do thing the HARD way.

Ok, subject vessel is a Catalina 36 recently purchased by a coworker. Probably the finest condition 1986 boat I have set foot on, well taken care of and maintained with very few maintenance issues. I feel like he got a good value for the what he his offer price was.

Anyway, the mast boot material is shot and flaking away so of course leaks when it rains. The stainless band clamps are in fine condition, mast and mast collar (partners) are very good also. The forward most thru-deck bolt has a light leak but I'll re-bed that, which means I may want to pull up the entire mast partners and re bed all of them. I have confirmed the deck around the mast partners is solid fiberglass with no core, and as long as the wedges on the mast are against the mast itself and that fiberglass but not against the mast collar it should work (I did research this on other web pages).

Ok, bigger question here the concept of a DIY mast boot. I'm trying to make a better product than an off the shelf boot with the materials I have on hand. First, I have a nice big piece of Hypalon fabric. I bought this last year to make patches and new Reg Number panels for my dinghy, I have 25 inch x 38 inch left. I was hoping I could find some kind of pattern than I can just cut a proper fitting strip and I have the STA-Bond adhesive to make the seam. It can't be a straight rectangle strip because of the diff diameter of the mast vs the mast collar, but it shouldn't be much of an angle cut.

Besides using Hypalon, I have a big 16oz can of brush on liquid rubber. I use it for liquid whipping, its the same stuff but 25% the cost by volume as liquid whipping but in a quart can from Wal-Mart (Flex-Seal). I could brush this liquid onto another fabric that I make the boot out of, but I'm not sure how well it will hold up to UV over time.

Anyway... I think the hypalon will make the toughest and most UV resistance boot. Any comments or tips would be appreciated. I'm going to head down to the marina and try to make a pattern before it gets dark.

 

[Stu Jackson]

Whatever you use, the issues are the waterproofing abilities of the material and the adhesion of the TOP part to the mast. Don't forget the channel for the sail slugs - it needs to be filled to avoid water coming down it. Good luck. Pictures would help.

Our pristine )) 1986 Catalina 34 has its original mast boot because the day we bought it in 1998 we installed a sunbrella cover for the boot based on Mainsheet magazine tech notes from the C34 group.

 

[dlochner]

Riggingonly.com sells mast boot tape in white and black.
Sailboat Rigging,Hardware & Accessories | Rigging Only's Online Store

 

[CloudDiver]

Went to the boat yesterday afternoon, peeled off the old leaky mast boot.
- Found the stainless band clamps to be in excellent condition, slight rust stains already cleaned up.
- Measured circumference of mast and mast collar (partners)
- The mast collar bolts are coated on the top with silicone, silicone around the base edge and on the mast. Owner is going to work on cleaning it all off.
- The gap has two sets of wedges. The lower set is tight against the mast and solid glass deck holding it center. The second set above that were loosely in place and only there to fill the gap along with some short lengths of clear vinyl tube, everything filled with caulk above that. It was dirty and split up, but luckily not silicone and not too hard to scrape out.
- The mast collar is held down with bolts. The starboard side bolts have washers and nuts on the backs, accessible from the cabin. The port side bolts have threaded inserts embedded in the deck (the bulkhead in the cabin blocks access to backing nuts) confirmed this from the C-36 owners forum. After we scrape away all the residual silicone we will unbolt it, lift it up, and properly bed everything with butyl tape. It appears that only the forward most center bolt has a leak.
- The plan is still to make a hypalon boot. I found the 'math' to cut a curved piece of material that will wrap around the upper and lower circumferences and overlap two inches. There will be a 60 degree angle and if done correctly there will be no pleats or wrinkles in the hypalon (fingers crossed). Pretty sure I will use a single strip of butyl tape on the top seal under the hypalon that the band clamp will squeeze.
- As a back-up, I have some mast-boot tape in my Amazon shopping cart, LOL.
*pictures to follow*

 

[Sailor Sue]

Maybe before you cut the hypalon you could make a test collar out of an old T shirt or junk material so you can tweak the fit.

 

[CloudDiver]

Maybe before you cut the hypalon you could make a test collar out of an old T shirt or junk material so you can tweak the fit.

Yes, I'll be making a pattern first and checking fit. The hypalon is way too expensive to mess up by guess work. I found a few articles describing the math to cut a curved shape to fit bottom and top diameters of the mast collar and mast. The overall height will probably be double to avoid any wrinkles, pleats, or other disturbances to the hypalon fabric.
http://windborneinpugetsound.blogspot.com/2010/03/how-to-cut-mast-boot.html

 

[FastOlson]

Link to my solution.
No leaks down the outside of the (thru stepped) spar.
Note that the Sunbrella cover protects the original much-patched vinyl molded cover from Kenyon.
http://www.ericsonyachts.org/infoexchange/showthread.php?8626-Mast-boot-replacement/page2

 

[jon hansen]

..... or you can go non traditional. bubble gum, saran wrap, duct tape.

scotch tape in a pinch

 

[Apex]

spartite.... you can order here: (sbo)

 

[CloudDiver]

spartite.... you can order here: (sbo)

Subject of the thread is DIY mast boot, but thanks anyway.

 

[CloudDiver]

..... or you can go non traditional. bubble gum, saran wrap, duct tape.

scotch tape in a pinch

Is this sarcasm?

 

[jon hansen]

by definition i believe it is

 

[jon hansen]

on the alden for over 40 years i used nice canvas custom boots. now mast tape, made for this job, is what i use. quick, water proof, more so than the boots. easy peezy

with the boots i still had to wrap the edges with rigging tape. got rid of the boots, all tape now

 

[jon hansen]

however. stop the leaks today is best. nice cutsie wraps when you have time are better

 

[gettinthere]

Use Mainesail's Bed-It Butyl tape as a sealer. I use it under the top lip of mast boot tape very successfully. It fills the crease in the front of the mast and the groove at the back of the mast completely. Zero leaks

 

[CloudDiver]

on the alden for over 40 years i used nice canvas custom boots. now mast tape, made for this job, is what i use. quick, water proof, more so than the boots. easy peezy

with the boots i still had to wrap the edges with rigging tape. got rid of the boots, all tape now

Yes, mast tape is the back up at around $30, but the idea here isn't just saving money. To be fair, the Hypalon I have costs more than that. It's just by chance I have the hypalon left over after having already cut all the patches and number panels I needed from the 2 yards I bought. The bigger picture is that hypalon stands up to UV, where I don't know how long the mast-boot tapes hold up until they break down, split, and leak.

 

[CloudDiver]

Use Mainesail's Bed-It Butyl tape as a sealer. I use it under the top lip of mast boot tape very successfully. It fills the crease in the front of the mast and the groove at the back of the mast completely. Zero leaks

That was my plan, and I purchased 2 rolls of Bed-It Tape from Mainsail a couple years ago (way more than I needed). I'm going to make the top ring of the cover 1/4" longer to give roughly 1/8" spacing around the circumference of the mast. That space will allow the boot to slide down over tape and then band clamp around, have a little squeeze out but not make big wrinkles or pleats in the hypalon.

 

[Spindrift NH]

I redid my mast boot a few years ago with Regalite(40 gauge) isenglass and butyl tape to seal top, bottom, and where the Regalite overlapped by about two inches. I first made a template with plastic template material. I was surprised at how long of a piece of clear plastic I would need for the boot, 25 x 38 might be long enough for yours but I think mine was a little bigger. The Regalite was scrap from a canvas job and the butyl is always on my boat for other jobs so total cost for DIY: my time!

PS: no leaks going on 3 years.

 

[dscribner]

Search Good Old Boat archives. They had an article on this a few years back. I thought the guy did a nice job of it.

 

[kampuniform]

Fairly easy task. I used a sheet of thick back neoprene. I used the original 35-year-old boot (!) as a template. I wasn’t satisfied with the alternatives on the market, like the universal mast boot.