Mast Foot Plate is loose ??

[Ward H]

Today was high winds, cold and cloudy. Winds died away around 4pm so I went out to motor around a bit. I noticed something I do not know if I need to worry about or not.

First the set up:
The bottom of the hinge plate is bolted to the cabin top. The top of the hinge plate is bolted to a cast aluminum piece that is put in the bottom of the mast. Two nuts hold the hinge plate to the cast piece.
The cast piece appears to be rivited to the mast.

My shrouds could be a little tighter. I noticed the mast is rocking slightly side to side and found it is slightly loose on the hinge plate. Those two bolts need to be tightened but that means dropping the mast.
I don't mind doing that but it will have to be while on the water, tied to the dock.
Will I need to remove the cast piece or is it just studs and all I need to do is tighten the nuts?
Can I continue to sail for a couple of days and fix it when I get back home?

I hesitate to lower the mast while on the water as it is a job to balance it when it is on the trailer, let alone on water.

I just want to make sure I am not over thinking or over worrying about something that can wait to be fixed.

Thanks for the help!

Ward

 

[centerline]

Today was high winds, cold and cloudy. Winds died away around 4pm so I went out to motor around a bit. I noticed something I do not know if I need to worry about or not.

My shrouds could be a little tighter. I noticed the mast is rocking slightly side to side and found it is slightly loose on the hinge plate.

if your mast is rocking back and forth, a little tighter on the shrouds is an understatement....
a bit of movement at the tabernacle is normal if your rigging is loose, but your rigging shouldnt be loose....
the mast will have to move vertically up from the aluminum insert to get away... but providing all the bolts and hardware are in place, loose is not an immediate concern. just dont let the bolts fall out. when you tighten the rigging, it pulls the mast downward with a tremendous force..... and it will stay down.
there is no doubt the hardware could be tightened up a bit, but it doesnt sound like you need to do an emergency repair....

 

[Manureva]

ONE OF 3 THING IS HAPPENING
1-the plate is simply loose,
or 2-the bottom of your compression post is rotten away, and everything including the cabin top has sagged down.
or 3- this is the most likely one of them, the core under the mast plate is rotten and will need replacement, this has cause the thickness of the deck to be less and the hardware is now loose even if it did not back a single turn, to repair this, you will have to pull the mast and rigging, find the extend of the rot, replace the rotten core, re fiberglass and gel-coat. now if you get it done by a yard your boat might not be worth the repair, sail it as is until the stick falls down or fix it yourself or with a friend.

sorry about the bad news

Paul

 

[Tom Hoffman]

If your base plate is mounted on your cabin top with no post under it so support, It is fairly simple fix. The first time a friend and I tried to raise my mast, the wind got it and twisted it and tore the base plate right out of the top of the boat. It was only held down with 4 #12 1-1/2" screws down into the top built in arch.

I generally try and not do things half way. I drilled all the way through the arch and down into the cabin and taped 4 - 1/4 bolt holes into a 1/4" thick SS backing plate and covered the surface of the boat and plate with 3M 5400 Marine sealant and put the top plate on the boat and threaded the bolts down through in to the backer plate and once everything was tight, I took a cut off saw and trimmed the ends of the bolts flush, so no one would loose their scalp should the come in contact with the backer plate.

It did the job and has served well and no leaks.

 

[Tom Hoffman]

PS,

I find it much easier to raise and lower the mast while in the water tied to a dock. It helps greatly to be able to step off the boat at least on one side and not worry about falling off the cabin top and off the boat to the hard ground below. For me about an 8' fall. Not good at all.

 

[RedRex]

Mast Plate
You don't need to drop the mast. I have the same rig and I use a clevis pin with two cotter rings to attach the mast plate. Nothing to tighten. My guess is that you don't have sufficient shroud tension.
Hope this helps,
Redrex

 

[Ward H]

Centerline and RedRex, you called it. Loose shrouds were the problem. I tightened them by one hole and adjusted the forestay. No more wobble. I did lower the mast to adjust the shrouds and found the two bolts holding the foot plate to the mast were tight.

Paul, I was worried about the tabernacle sagging as it showed signs of previous patching and had some cracks in the gel coat.
I picked away some loose pieces, put some epoxy in a syringe and filled several voids. Then layed in some fiberglass cloth. No compression post and no signs of damage from the inside. I can put 230lbs next to the mast with no flexing of the cabin top. I think I am in good shape as far as mast support goes.

Tom, I did something similar. Mine had three SS bolts with some kind of wierd sheet metal nut on the inside. That nut did not offer much pull through protection, even though it lasted 36 years. I bought new, longer bolts, nylock nuts and fender washers and installed them.

Thanks All!

 

[Manureva]

good! I am happy the problem was an easy fix, fair wind and full sail!