Mast Problem

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Jun 28, 2009
33
Hunter 27 Penobscot
My wife and I are new to sailing.Last year we bought a 1978 Hunter-27. When the boat was pulled out of the water this fall we were told by the boatyard that the base of the mast where it sits on the top of the cabin seemed "mushy". I was told by a third party that this is not an unusual problem for a boat of that age. Moisture seeps in over the years and is the root of the problem.
I have several questions:
What supports the the mast?
What is the material?
Is this a indeed a common problem?
How is it repaired and how difficult?
Is it expensive?
As you might guess I'm not sure how much to spend on a boat this old, although sailing it has been great fun.
We live in mid-coast Maine.
I appreciate your response.
BF:)
 

Alan

.
Jun 2, 2004
4,174
Hunter 35.5 LI, NY
If you search the forums you will find a good deal of info on this topic. An inspection of the support column is needed. If it is rotting it must be replaced In the meantime you should take the mast down ASAP. The support beam for the mast may be rotting and when it fails there is nothing to carry the loading of the rig. All the early Hunters used a wood support column beneath the mast base. Later Hunter switched to a steel column which of course is not subject to rot.
 
Dec 2, 1999
15,184
Hunter Vision-36 Rio Vista, CA.
I'd agree with Alan. Get the mast removed. Then you can get a section of fiberglass that is under the mast step cut out (save it). You will then see what is going on with the deck core.

The next thing to do is to remove the teak covering on the compression post. I do not know on your specific model, but many had pine/fir wood that provided the compression post support.

If you do not find any rot in the post, you will just need a deck repair.
 
Jun 8, 2004
48
hunter 27 Savannah
mast support

I had a similar problem. It was due to water entering the wood
coring in the deck underneath the mast through the hole cut into the
cabin top for the masthead light wires (in my view an incredibly shoddy design). Even an MMM 5200 seal would not last a season.

I have since permanently sealed the hole with fiberglass.
The masthead wires now exit the mast near its base and are led into the cabin through a regular through-hull in the cabin roof which will keep water out of the core.

The water entering through the deck also caused the compression post to rot. In addition, the flimsy stringer under the compression post had broken. However, it is easy to replace the compression post (I used wood again) and to sister the stringer. I am now quite confident in the integrity of my mast support, but I do wish my bulkhead were square.
 
Jan 2, 2008
547
Hunter 33 (Cherubini design Forked River, Barnegat Bay, NJ
BigFish- relax. With the boat up on the hard I can assure you from personal experience the roof will support the static load of the mast. But yes, you do want to repair the problem. The force of the mast is directed straight down through a column called a compression post. Though we hope it won't compress too much. It is not supported by a cross beam except on a few smaller boats. Your areas of concern are on deck where the mast sits on its step, sometimes at the top of the compression post, and at the base of the compression post where it often can be in water. Hunter has done this just a wee bit differently on each of the boats just to keep us guessing. The deck repair as was said consists of cutting and lifting a pieceof the deck outer skin under the mast, scooping out the mushy plywood and replacing it, most easily, with thickened epoxy, which can not rot. The compression post; remove the decorative covering, pullout the remains, and replace it, preferably with metal. Stainless pipe if you got it, otherwise I would have no problem with galvanized. I would treat that with epoxy of some sort.

Cost to have a marina do this? I wouldn't even ask. This is all owner doable stuff. We all started somewhere. The information is here on the site. The availability of deeply knowldgable people here who are eager to help is unsurpassed and without price.
 
Jun 28, 2009
33
Hunter 27 Penobscot
Thanks

Great site. Thank you all for your replies when it warms up I'll give it a go and keep you posted:):):).
BF
 
Jan 4, 2007
406
Hunter 30 Centerport
Big Fish,

I loved my Hinter 27 and had the same problem. Search the posts on this site for Hunter 27 Mast Step Rebuild. It shows good pictures. I agree with the others here the cost of having this fixed by the yard would probably be well in excess of the value of the boat but if you have a little faith and are fearless you can do this....I did.
The deck is a sandwitch of a layer of fiberglass, a balsa wood core and a top layer of fiberglass. If water gets through the top layer of fiberglas it is absorbed by the balsa wood which causes it to rot and when it freezes to delaminate the deck. This makes it mushy and the weight of the mast will crush the deck. Water usually get in from the mast base bolt holes or the electric and antenna wires holes next to the mast. Hunters design on this was dumb and usually poorly ececuted and prone to leak. It can get so bad that the doors in the cabin won't close. The mast base is bolted through the deck for 3 or 4 bbolts that pass through the cabin with nuts inside. You'll have to reove these to get the base off and you may have to remove some trim pieces inside to get at them. With the mast down you can fix this by:
1) Cut off the top of the deck around the bump. see the pics on this web. Save the top because you reuse it.
2) Clean out the wet wood with a chisel grinder and any other tools that seem to work.
3) Cut marine plywood or other hard wood strips to fill the area. The should not fill it up 100% as you'll be using some resin and thickener from west marie to fill up the space.
4) Mask around the deck and the top piece you cut off. use 2 layers of tape.
5) Seal any holes in the area you cleaned out with tape from the inside or a drop of bondo body filler. It keeps the resin from dripping away...it always goes exactly where you don't want it.
6) Mix up a batch of resin and use a little thickening power kind of like very very thick maple syrup.
7)pour some into the cavity you cleaned out and place the wood in. It should ooze up around the wood. Now add a little more to fill the hole. On mine I made a small second batch make the consistency of peanut butter and butterd the deck peice I cut out .
8) Then place the deck piece I cut out on top and pressed it in level. I tongue depressors to scoop off the excess that oozed out of the crack. Lots of gloves papertowels and a waste basket to put the trash in. Made clean up easier. I put a brick on the top to kind of press everything together and let it cure.
9) when it was dry I removed the tape and sanded the crack nice and smooth. Then I outlined the area with tape and used some textured deck paint (Kiwigrip) to cover the area.
10) Redrill the holes for the mast base and make sure there was a good bit of calking to prevent leaks. If you drill them out a little bigger and the tape the bottom and fill with resin andredrill to the right size even if water leaks in it wond be absorbed by the wood. You can do the same thing if you replace the antenna and mast electric wires.

You can do this yourself. The fearleness come from cutting out the deck. Cutting the deck makes us all really nervious.

If the cabin liner inside the boat is depresed you might have to jack it back into place and then replace the compression post with a longer one or add a shim. You can remove the teak cover of the post which is along the port side to the rear most partition. You pop out the bungs outof the trim with a small screwdrive and unscrew the trim. The post undeath on mine was just a piece of pine like a 2"x2".

It won't be perfect but hey the H-27is a 30+year old boat that is basically bullet proof and fun to sail and easy on the wallet....and when you put a scratch in it as we all do from time to time you won't loose you mind.

Let us know how you make out.
Sailnboats require some work and that's part of the fun....

I fixed this on my boat so if you want to e-mail me I'm Nelsonhow@netscape.net
 
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Mar 10, 2008
43
Hunter 27_1984 gibraltar MI
I did this repair to my 1984 27 last year. I made my cuts in the non skid area and peeled a piece about 4 ft. by 3ft. of the top skin off. this revealed the balsa core. mine was soaked from the lack of seal around the PVC wire chase. After removeing the core I found a local source for the 7/16 core on a mat just like the original 2X1blocks. I cut the mat to fit, taped the top side with clear shipping tape and cut out large puzzle pieces. Using West System I glued my large pieces to the lower skin, than after a couple of days of drying time I peeled the shipping tape, mixed some thin West System and filled the gaps between the blocks like grout, again after a couple of days I mixed up some thick (peanut butter) West system and layed the top skin back in. After set I finished the joint with stips of glass mat and West System. After finishing the joint work I painted the Non-skid with Kiwi grip and you can not tell where any of the work was done. The cost for the whole job to me was about $250.00 for materials.
 
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