Mast refit

[rad]

I had the mast removed at the end of last season. The cabin top had depressed enough to warrant the move. The depression seems to be only in the cabin top. There is no sag inside the cabin. The bilge beam it sound. I have to cut open the cabin top to shore up the base. There seems to be a metal plate under the fiberglass. Does anyone know how large the metal plate is. I will need to remove it to get to the soggy area underneath. I don't want to cut twice. I was thinking of using a very strong magnet to locate the edges of the metal plate. Can someone post a picture of the area with the fiberglass removed. I checked the archives and I could only find one set of pics that do not really show what I believe to be under the mast base.

 

[steve rainey]

mast base

I have a 78 Hunter 30. what I did was after taking the mast down, cut around the raised area on the deck down to the cabin liner. only thing I run into was some plywood. No metal. I ground everything out and layed the whole area up with glass back up to the top of the ridge. the heavy rovin woven mat. This is a T shaped area thats now solid glass and about 3" thick. put on a couple coats of gel coat, redrilled the holes for the mast step. Also the alum mast step was designed with a cut out in the middle of it Why??? don't know but I welded it shut and also welded in an 8" long 1" dia conduit upright right in front of the plugged hole area for mast wiring. Didn't want my wiring coming out of the side of the mast. Also turned my pressure post 180 degrees so as to get a new grip with the screws for the teak cover boards thats used to finish it. Also tossed the iron I beam in the bidge and replace with 1/4" SS and used WM epoxy to lock it in place. Its 100% better than it was. I'm comfortable taking it off the shore now where as before I wouldn't have. theres no reason to put metal or wood under the mast step. Also it doesn't leak and even if it did so what, can't hurt anything...Sounds like a lot of work but really wasn't. the key is to lay your glass right, get a roller and keep the air bubble out from between the layers...

 

[steve raineys]

mast sag fix

In addition to the above, one other thing you need to be aware of. when laying up glass like I did filling in a large area, don't lay up to many layers at a time, 1/4" maybe a little more at a time. Otherwise it will get to hot and won't bond. I had to redo it and that wasn't fun...