One more time, regarding the 192 mast step...

[Brian S]

Does anyone know what the construction is under the mast step in a 192?

I am pretty convinced that cracks around the step admitted some water before I got to them and filled them. I re-tuned my rig about a month ago, and I'm sure it's looser now. I think I can feel that one corner of the step is slightly depressed.

I did a similar repair on my Boston Whaler Harpoon 4.6, but it was the top of the CB trunnk and not the surface of the deck, so it was fairly easy to keep nice looking. I'll be damned if I want to have to go cutting the top of my cabin...

Guess I should give Rudy a call and see if he knows if there's plywood between the step bracket and the compression post underneath...

 

[Brian S]

Rudy says there is plywood under there, and the cracks one sees along the sides is pretty common. Looks like my cracks have gone all the way through the laminate, and it's time for some surgery. He says in retrospect they should have built that up with roving and mat, because it would have been stronger. Back then, they weren't thinking we'd be keeping these boat going for 40 years... I'll probably either redo mine with plywood for another 35 years (in which case I'll have a different boat by the time it needs done again, or I'll be dead) or I'll lay in panels of G10 or something. I may even try to do the repair from underneath, so I can hide all the ugly stuff under the headliner!

 

[RickKane]

Brian, as you know I replaced the plywood core in Nowhere Plan from below. The advantage of avoiding cosmetics on deck far outweighed for me the hassle of working from below. Plywood was something like 26" x 14", rest is balsa, but I made the ply bigger where the balsa was rotted.
As for cracks, mine definitely has'em, especially since the deck was sagging about 3/4" at the step. But, with the inner surface and rotted core removed, even the worst looking of the gelcoat cracks at the step did not make it through the outer glass to the core. It appeared that water entered from the bolts locating the stiffener post (aft of the mast on the 222) and cracks emanating from them. Cracks from what evidence suggests was a traumatic yanking of the mast, as in tangling a shroud with another boat. Possibly, water from the bolts first helped delaminate, then further water entered after the trauma. Or, trauma caused the leaking.
In any case, I glassed in a layer of mat to the inside of the deck surface, before the new plywood, to ensure dry core. Time will tell I guess. I'll answer anything I can. Lost a lot of pictures of the work when my phone jumped into the lake, but the most pertinent survived (in various posts on TSBB). Rick

 

[Brian S]

I will get some good pictures when the boat comes out and I pull the compression post. We'll see how much of this project makes it through before winter, and how much goes through the spring