MaineSail, Ross, RichH anyone else with smarts

[sailaway78]

What a header for a post, huh. I had no one with any specific knowledge of the Seidelman mast situation answer the other post. Have been out there digging and looking and thinking and have I think/hope come up with cause of the problem and a possible solution. From what I can tell the mast is a Kenyon #5072 and it sits on a # 1044 mast step. It appears as though the mast origionally sat on the four courners, with cutouts on both sides, front and back of the extrusion. These corners appear to have corroded over the years until they collapsed. This thing has a very flat bilge, and there is just no way to keep an inch or two of water out of there. As I stated before, the whole rig took a pretty good beating when the forestay broke. My thinking is that after that, then tightening all the stays up pretty good, those four corners finally just gave out. The mast step, hull, and everything else appears to be fine, and in good condition. Best solution I have come up with is to simply raise the mast some, cut off another inch or so of the bottom, up past any bad spots, and set it back down. I will not have any problems with sails or top clearance. Will more than likely have to shorten all the stays. I will just cut them off some and replace the bottoms with Noresman fittings, as long as the wire is good. Does this sound even feasible to you knowledgable guys, or am I totally out of my mind. Or does anyone have a better suggestion. The boat is about to come out of the water for a bottom job soon, so any thing that requires pulling it will not be an added burden. Basically I just want to get back on the water, but am not interested in any temporary fixes.

 

[Norton]

Sleeve it ?

You could cut off your two inches and put a sleeve on the bottom of the mast to keep the same height. Two inches as you suggested may not be a big deal what about boom height?

 

[BobM]

Correction?

Do think you mean a K-10440 mast step? That is what is listed on rigrite as a match for the 5072 extrusion.

The K-10440 is listed as made to work with the K10442 mast step base plate. Have you considered cutting the mast but having a machine shop make you a thicker base plate? The K-10442 is only 3/8ths per the site.

Otherwise your idea to replace all the fittings with Norseman's is sound. However, I bet it is cheaper to have a thicker base plate made and you get the added bonus of getting your mast extrusion up and out of your 1-2 inches of water you always have.

 

[RichH]

A picture or two would help ......

Been there done that with rotted compression post bottoms.

From my perspective (and without any picture for reference), the easiest and least troublesome would probably be to trim the corroded bottom of the mast, install a pedestal base under the mast, etc. to take up the difference of what was cut away, etc. A machine shop would probably be the best to construct/fabricate the exact 'mating' for the connection to the mast + base.
Putting in a pedestal and epoxying it fast to bilge floor will avoid costly rigging modifications, etc. - raise the mast a few inches, install the pedestal, epoxy tab-in the pedestal, lower the mast back down, tighten the rigging, etc.

You might also want to contact a spar supplier such as Rig-Rite (www.RigRite.com), or even Kenyon directly, as Im sure this is not an 'uncommon' problem with mast butts sitting in wet bilges.

 

[Maine Sail]

I agree..

With what some of the others have said. Remove the damaged and corroded bottom of the spar and recreate the drain holes, maybe 1/2" to 1", then fabricate a shim to replace this lost 1/2 to 1" =/-. This will as Rich said avoid the hassle of trimming stays or a furler foil. It will also leave your boat with the designed mast height. I don't think 1" would make much difference but shimming up seems to be the most logical choice. Is the mast step reusable? Is it stainless or aluminum?

 

[Ctskip]

I vote for shimming the mast step

Better yet is to have another one made to your specifications. That way there won't be any water sitting for the mast to rot again.
Keep it up,
Ctskip

 

[Tim R.]

Same problem on my Pearson

The Pearson 28 very suceptable to mast corrosion at the base. I removed rouchly 4 inches and shimmed the mast step with a piece of 4 inch aluminum box stock. This also got the mast out of the water.

http://treilley.myphotoalbum.com/view_photo.php?set_albumName=album07&id=Tim_Reilly_Step2_jpg

 

[sailaway78]

Thanks all

Thanks for all the good ideas. I think that using a spacer plate to raise the mast back up to it's origional height is the best solution. The difference doesn't seem enough to really make any difference, but keeping the mast base up out of the water, plus not having to replace the bottom fittings on all the stays makes the decision pretty simple. Four 5/16 and four 1/4 inch Norseman fittings are not cheap.

 

[Ross]

Look to the lumber dealers for column bases

usually cast aluminum and an inch or so thick.

 

[RichH]

... or you can 'mold' a filled polyester base.

I use chopped fiber, high density filler, and chopped/cut cloth in a polyester mush (slow cure ratio to prevent 'foam-outs'), make a mold of what I want sand simply pour-in a new pedestal base. Just leave an inch or two of clearance when you 'jack-up' the mast butt. Polyesster doesnt degrade as fast as a 'metal' in water.

While 'cogitating my navel' you could simply 'cross-drill' and add several cross shoulder boats in the 'good' area of the mast base and simply encapsulate them into the pedestal ... no need to cut the butt of the mast, etc. as the cross bolts will transfer the stress to the 'pedestal'.

 

[kloudie1]

Mast Base Shim

Nice and Easy… I don’t claim to have any smarts but I did sleep in a Holiday Inn Express once !
I definitely agree with Rich, a built up fiberglass step to raise the cut off stick is a slick way to go. I saw it on a boat in Mobile a few years back.. but the quickest/easiest is the metal plate extender to do the same thing but be careful with water in there.. a couple of zincs may be in order.

 

[Ross]

If you can find a block of Osage Orange

wood it will last about five years longer than granite. You could bed it in a paste of fibeglass and resin.

 

[BobM]

McMaster Carr

I read an article that referenced that they bought precast fiberglass sheets/blocks directly. I checked and you can buy 1 x 12 forabout $40 a square foot, but didn't see thicker.

FYI

 

[stan10797]

What a header for a post, huh. I had no one with any specific knowledge of the Seidelman mast situation answer the other post. Have been out there digging and looking and thinking and have I think/hope come up with cause of the problem and a possible solution. From what I can tell the mast is a Kenyon #5072 and it sits on a # 1044 mast step. It appears as though the mast origionally sat on the four courners, with cutouts on both sides, front and back of the extrusion. These corners appear to have corroded over the years until they collapsed. This thing has a very flat bilge, and there is just no way to keep an inch or two of water out of there. As I stated before, the whole rig took a pretty good beating when the forestay broke. My thinking is that after that, then tightening all the stays up pretty good, those four corners finally just gave out. The mast step, hull, and everything else appears to be fine, and in good condition. Best solution I have come up with is to simply raise the mast some, cut off another inch or so of the bottom, up past any bad spots, and set it back down. I will not have any problems with sails or top clearance. Will more than likely have to shorten all the stays. I will just cut them off some and replace the bottoms with Noresman fittings, as long as the wire is good. Does this sound even feasible to you knowledgable guys, or am I totally out of my mind. Or does anyone have a better suggestion. The boat is about to come out of the water for a bottom job soon, so any thing that requires pulling it will not be an added burden. Basically I just want to get back on the water, but am not interested in any temporary fixes.

My Pearson 30 has visible corrosion at the base from sitting in bilge water. It has not collapsed. So, after reading all the fine suggestions here, I suggest Eliminating the future corrosion problems by installing a "faceseal" type of shaft seal and eliminate that dripping stuffing box forever. My bilge has been dry since 2003. Can only be done of course, when the boat is out of the water because a faceseal is slipped over the shaft to install it.

 

[bffatcat]

mast step problem

I like the Idea of a buildup to the original height along with a new mast step.
I would go with stainless steel as opposed to aluminum or fiberglass. If you
use stainless you will never have a problem again with the base and step any way. Any decent machine shop should be able to fabricate this for you provided you bring in the old step and provide the height dimensions. Unfortunately the bottom of an aluminum mast constantly sitting in salt water could be subject to corrosion Its best to try to keep aluminum out of salt water. Also check your mast boot on deck for tightness. Every little bit helps