what type of wood in mast step?

Hi,

have a 73 red hull I'm doing a little resto work to. I took the boat out in 35 knots, and although I didn't do the mast step job, I looked at the step through an inspection port I put in, and it looked good. Anyways after the big breeze day I noticed a couple of cracks had formed. I just took a small cutting tool/ die grinder and cut away the fwd top part of the step block. It was a little wet, but solid and not rotted. Is this Teak? it looks like it? or is it a piece of marine plywood, which I can't see the lamination? right now I'm drying out the wood, but if it's teak I wouldn't have to worry so much about rot, hence the question. Would laser have been this smart? I just got all the styrofoam out, 5 blocks!, what a PITA! then it's time to find all the leaks...sweet.

thanks in advance

May be oak.

Whatever type of wood it is, it rots when it contacts water. I lost my mast step in my '79 hull in September. It's an expensive fix at the very least and probably can't be justified, except I don't want to retire any boat on my watch.
Water was seeping in around the bailing drain hole. The previous owner tried to fix it, but I'm afraid not very well.
The mast step is the weakest part of an otherwise fine boat. The step SHOULD be made from teak or even a fabricated fiberglass configuration that would not be subject to rot. Construction techniques that allows even a small amount of water to destroy the integrity of the whole boat, is poor judgement on the designers and/or builders part. I've seen too many boats with blown-out mast steps lately. This is the Achilles' heel of a great boat, and noboby can tell me if it's been corrected. I think a survey of the back lots of yacht clubs and boat yards would show the number one cause for a Laser hull becoming worthless is a blown out mast step.
You are wise to monitor it's condition regularly.

I can't comment on '73 vintage - but by '76 they had switched to plywood as the base. The plywood will rot and crumble.

If your base is still hard and in good condition, it may or may not be plywood and I would suggest you dry it and then recoat it with a good epoxy resin to seal it from future issues. I would also put a couple of wraps of mat around the base of the mast tube and mast base after coating the base, to ensure the integrity of the tube to base joint.

If the wood is rotted, it's not that difficult of a job to get a new base glassed in place.

I'm tempted to say it is marine plywood. The reason for this is that the piece of wood in question requires a number of cuts to form, and also has a hole in the middle. If I were manufacturing the boat, I would not want to waste all that teak, or use up blades cutting a hardwood such as oak for a structural member which is encapsulated and which no one will see.

Given that you have access, can you grind away the bondo and the glass cloth such that it will dry out? The problem is that it is leaking from the inside of the tube out, and you cannot fix that. The only other fixes I have seen are where the aforementioned bondo and glass are removed as much as possible and the entire tube/base joint is
re-covered with cloth. If you use somethig like West System, it will be considerably stronger than when new. You might try searching the site for Stroth Fiberglass, because I think there are pictures of such a fix.

Hope this helps, and please keep us posted.

Bungo Pete said:

I'm tempted to say it is marine plywood. The reason for this is that the piece of wood in question requires a number of cuts to form, and also has a hole in the middle. If I were manufacturing the boat, I would not want to waste all that teak, or use up blades cutting a hardwood such as oak for a structural member which is encapsulated and which no one will see.

Given that you have access, can you grind away the bondo and the glass cloth such that it will dry out? The problem is that it is leaking from the inside of the tube out, and you cannot fix that. The only other fixes I have seen are where the aforementioned bondo and glass are removed as much as possible and the entire tube/base joint is
re-covered with cloth. If you use somethig like West System, it will be considerably stronger than when new. You might try searching the site for Stroth Fiberglass, because I think there are pictures of such a fix.

Hope this helps, and please keep us posted.

Click to expand...

I dried the wood out and drilled some holes in the forward part of it. I believe it is marine plywood after seeing adjacent grain after pulling off a bit of the loose stuff. I used some west with the adhesive filler over the top of he exposed wood, and into the holes. Then I used some cloth and west before the other stuff kicked and wrapped it up nice while bonding to the hull. I reinforced the bottom fwd part of he mast tube where it looked weak. From the inside I poured some west with adhesive filler, then epoxied a teflon disk to the to the top of the aluminum wear plate and bonded that in the bottom. It came out nice, and all sealed up too. After that I decided to make more work for myself my pressure testing the hull with the shop vac and separating the cockpit from the hull where it joins around the scupper. I was able to clean up the area around the joint and when I stepped in he cockpit with the boat in the yard, it popped back into place...ooh. Then I packed some polyester "tiger hair" filler around the whole joint which worked nice, and it stiffened up the whole area without adding much weight. Now the boat stays bone dry. Took it off the beach in the big surf and 20 knots the other day in panama city beach FL, and was riding the surf into the break just ripping hiking off the after quarter. It was going sweet when I saw a nice set rolling in. I heated up and started carving the face, when it started to stack up...big...like way above my head 8' high. I dug the ass in and pumped the sheet hard, but it was too late. It picked me up and threw me in front of the boat. I swam for the bottom and saw the boat go over the top of me. It was sic. Just missed it from crushing me. Luckily the boat was unharmed. I thought this thing would have come up in three pieces. Tough boat. When I got it in, there wasn't a drop of water in it! Amazing!

Cheers,
John

That is truly sick.

I am glad to hear that your repair came out OK. One other suggestion is to add teflon wear strips to your mast. One goes on the very bottom (where the corner will dig into the forward half of the bottom of the mast step tube) and the other goes about 14" above the first. The latter will prevent the mast from digging into the gelcoat at the top of the tube. You can buy a set at APS and for the short money involved, its worth it.