Pearson 26 mast support

[bblument]

Hello, all...

Well, the saga continues.. just when I thought I was almost done working/renovating my new-to-me 1972 P26 and could actually launch and start learning to sail....

After a couple generally enjoyable weekends of fixing seams, cracks, and a slightly pitted keel, then bottom painting, compounding and waxing the topsides, rebuilding the bottom half of the 8hp sailmaster, cleaning, etc., I packed up my gear and prepared to start the 90 minute journey home again over the road. Before I left, something I had been chewing on over the past few months since I bought the bought made me go back inside the boat and check something.

What was that, you might ask? ...

Well, the previous owner had replaced the stock door to the head and v-berth area with an accordian-fold fabric curtain. That always bothered me; why do that? It affords less privacy, and, at least to my eyes, doesn't look near as nice as the stock door does in pictures of other boats I've seen. The only thing I could figure was it gave him easier access to the hanging locker, or maybe he thought it made the cabin look roomier. OR... and this is what started bothering me recently... maybe the door stuck and, instead of fixing the problem, he just took it out and threw up a curtain.

Turns out the answer was ... (DING)... the latter. The crossbeam is completely rotted; a 3" pocket knife went in up to the hilt w/ almost no pressure. There's a hole drilled right where the rot is the worst and a thick wire is routed through it; I think it's the antenna wire. That may be the original cause.. who knows.

Does anyone have an experience with this repair on a P26? The vertical posts on either side of the crossbeam seem to be solid, but do not appear to be anchored onto the sole in any way. To my admittedly non-engineer eyeballs, the would seem to be very structural in purpose, are they not?

Any pics this part of a p26 in good condition available anywhere? I've searched quite a bit.. hours and hours.. trying to find specific information about this problem. Dan Pfeiffer's site, this community, Cruisersforum, SailNet, Don Casey's books, and Google in general, but am striking out.


Any and all advice, ideas, and offers to help would be gratefully and greatly welcomed. Experienced craftsmen in the upstate NY area willing to do or help with the work would be cheerfully financially compensated

Best to all,

Barry

 

[Merlin Clark]

Barry,
I'm not a Pearson 26 guy but have been messing with/working on my own boats for a long time.
Does your arraingment look like this? http://photos.mostsailboats.org/201/1976-Pearson-P-26_1
If so, with the mast off the boat, I'd remove the wooden beam that supports the mast and make a new one, sandwiching a piece of wood the same thickness as the bulkheads between 2 longer peices of wood that would be through bolted into the bulkheads. Say, the outer peices overlap the bulkheads on both sides by about 8 inches and held by stainless round head machine screws towards the cabin and washers/nyloc nuts on the head side for asthetics. The outer peices of wood could be epoxied to the inner peice or through bolted to allow for future removal. Does this make sense? It does in my head.
I'd use Sapele or Cherry, both strong, beautiful and rot resistant and cost a fraction of teak.
The little drawing below might help to clarify what I'm trying to say. Blue is existing bulkheads, green the sandwiched peice and brown the outer, through bolted peices sandwiching the green peice.
If the teak trim is in the way you can trim it back with an oscillating multi tool.

 

[bblument]

Merlinoxo,

Thanks for writing your thoughts. Yes, that is a picture of my Pearson; well, more correctly, it's a picture of what my Pearson should be, or what it once was. I've attached a picture of mine, although it was taken by the previous owner and used in his original "for sale" ad. As you can see, the original wood trim or laminated bulkheads have been replaced by white laminate. Why, I don't know. They fit poorly around the crossmember at the top and those pretty lighter color trim (or are they added supports?) pieces are missing, but that doesn't show in the pic of course. I'll take some pictures of what I'm dealing with when I drive up to the boat again on Thursday.

It looks like the bulkheads (is that the laminate sheets... divider walls? I'm REALLY new to this, so my terminology isn't up to speed... please feel free to educate/correct me) are screwed into the two vertical posts and other supports along the sides of the boat. Someone on the Pearson listserv wrote to me and said that the compression posts are supported by the bulkheads and are not tied directly to the keel pad or bottom of the boat at all. I'm not sure I understand how that's possible, but I guess I'll find out once I start tearing everything apart. Once I have the mast down, assuming the boat is in the water, can I disassemble this whole bulkhead area to see what I'm dealing with without compromising the structure of the hull, as long as the boat is just sitting in the water?

I think I understand your construction suggestion, but on my boat it looks like the bulkheads are cut out around the cross beam and don't need to go into it at all; the cross beam just sits on top of the two vertical posts ("compression posts"?) so perhaps I could fashion a single solid cross beam rather than sandwich approach you diagrammed to incorporate the wrap around the bulkhead.

Sigh.. this much more than I wanted to get into, but such is the lot of a novice, I guess. Lots to learn, and I enjoy that part... I was just hoping to learn a bit more about actual sailing sooner in the process rather than later as I learned about maintenance and repair. <grin>..

Thanks again.. I really appreciate your thoughts.

Barry

 

[Merlin Clark]

It looks like the load would be shared between the teak pieces and the bulkheads (yes the white laminated areas).
Many builders of that era used wood grain formica to cover plywood bulkheas and the formica gets very ugly with age so the PO probably chose to cover with white laminate to fix the ugly. I'd keep it, looks clean and will be very durable.
With deck stepped masts, the load is transferred directly to the keel by way of a compression post or box corner (where 2 bulkheads join) or by a "header" or "bridge" (like yours and mine btw) which transfers the load to the bulkheads and then to the lower hull.
If your bulkheads are solid and rot free I'd keep them and fix it from the front and back. You should be fine with the plan to leave it in the water and do the work though. These old hulls are thick and retain their shape well.
I'd be concerned that right now the deck is taking the load because of the rot in the bridge. Might slack the shrouds and stays a bit and maybe brace it with a board to support from below.
I wouldn't sail it until it's fixed, might end up with a keel stepped mast!
Very cool boat!