Torn bolt from mast base

[Jibrennan]

My husband and I have never sailed, but bought a Catalina 22 in hopes of learning to do so. We do not plan to race, but just to cruise with our family. After purchase, we came across a problem with the base of the mast. It appears that the mast bolt was ripped from the mast at one point.
My question is this...Since one side of the mast is still intact, can we sail before repairing this?

I've read a couple of forums that suggested either
1. cutting 1 inch from the mast and then raising the mast step 1 inch
2. Welding a bolt to run along the inside of the mast and redrill a hole through it.

I'd love to hear from anyone else on this topic. Thanks!

 

[dzl]

Just take it to a welding shop and have them lay up some aluminum in the broken area then grind or file it back to shape and redrill the hole. Simple fix.

Honestly I don't know why you couldn't sail it that way? The most stress that area will see is while stepping the mast (I think), so if you can get it up it should hold since one side is still ok. Although, if you can get it fixed prior to sailing I would definitely try.

 

[CloudDiver]

Yes, you can cut the bottom one inch off the mast and then use the 1 inch riser from Catalina Direct to raise the mast step by one inch.
However, like DZL pointed out, its actually easier to just weld a repair on that small area and re-drill the hole. The bolt's only function is to act as a hinge while raising the mast, otherwise it does nothing while sailing. So yeah, it is not unsafe to sail with that damage as long as you get the mast up safely without it.
As long as you can transport the mast easily to a welding shop then it is actually less work to have it repaired than doing the shim kit. Ask around your group of friends to see if any 'motor heads' have their own welding equipment and are experienced with aluminum. You might have a friend that will do it for free... That is a pretty simple weld repair.