let me clarify
First, I want to thank you for your reply. I looked at my original message, and appologize for a few items I left out. For clarification:1. there is no head2. there is no closet between the vberth and keel.3. there is the 2x4 post connected as you described to the deck, and connected to the only partition wall which starboard and seperates the dining seating from the forward part of the boat. This partion was connected as you described to the starboard hull.The bolt that goes thru the deck and is connected to the angle on the top of the mast post is what seems to be causing all the cracking problems on the deck. It looks like a bad stress point on the deck caused by this connection. Furthermore....since the post, as you mention, does not have ANY bottom connections, I assumed this was not transfering MAST loads directly to the hull, but was acting more like a shim to support the deck above. THUS my orignal question assumed that this 2x4 post was not a real mast post.If the normal/standard mac25 mast support is as you described above, it appears that the mast loads are not really transfered directly on this 2x4 post, but rather, most of the mast load transfer to the hull thru the plywood partition connected to the starbord hull.With all that clarified and understood....this seems like a weak connection/transfer of loads! And from the looks of fiberglass cracks at the mast base plate, it seems like it is not working! This is how I see it: When I raise the mast, I know there is only a dinky 2x4 below the mast...which has no solid connection at the bottom to the keel (so what does it really doing?), and the post is not really connected directly to the mast base plate, but just one little screw to thru the deck, AND finally, the dimensions of the post is smaller than the mast above (shouldn't this mast post be the same size or larger than the mast above?).I guess my question really should be...has anyone out there modified a macgregor 25 mast post in a better way than the original design? I hope to create a new mast post which connects thru the deck directly to the mast base plate and at the bottom to the keel. The keel connection obviously seems the most difficult due to the swing keel and all that stuff.Thanks for your time and help!Cdog