water leaking thru mastep down inside mast post

[chris]

I have an 82 H27 and continually find a small (about a cupful) amount of water in the bilge area under the head area floorpan. This week I was working on the head in the morning hours and could actually hear the condensation from the morning dew trickling down inside the mastpost and splashing in the bilge area. I expect it must be getting thru the deck where the vhf antenae wire and navigation light wires pass thru inside the mast step. Since the mast step is cast, I am not sure how to access the area. Has anyone with a similar problem successfuly resolved this? I would rather not have continual moisture inside the mast post and in the bilge area below for obvious reasons. chris

 

[David11054]

Take the mast step apart and fix it

There are two layers of wood in the step structure. Water will eventually rot the wood, and turn it to mush. The lower layer is the balsa layer of your deck, so the damage is progressive, spreading with time.The story of my repair is in the archives along with others. The link below will take you to it.When the mast is down, you can dig out the goop in the bottom of the aluminum fixture, and find the bolts that hold it down. Once the fixture is off, you can start the analysis of the deck. But taking up the two layers of fiberglass is probably necessary.There is a very small chance that the plastic pipe that carries the wires is not properly installed and sealed - if so you ducked a straightforward repair of medium expense.Good Luck!DavidLady Lillie