Crack at Mast Step seam

Coconut

Coconut

New Member
This is a picture of the seam inside my boat’s mast step. Notice the cracks! I regularly inspect the mast step, and this seemed to appear after a sail last weekend. (I think some small pebbles from the lake bottom were brought up to the boat deck (from shoes and feet) and may have entered the mast step causing the abrasion and crack). Is the crack something I should be concerned with? If so, what should I do?
Thanks much.
 

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Definitely a crack in the gel coat. The standard leak test should tell if there’s a deeper crack in immediate need of attention. Long term - water is likely to get under the gel coat here and blister and flake a wider area. Any split in the underlying fiberglass would let water get into the fabric layers.

Since it’s at the deck joint my approach for just a gel coat crack would be to get one of those repair kits from System Three, MAS, or WEST that comes with glass cloth, epoxy resin, hardener, and mixing stuff. Clean up the joint according to the instructions and apply a couple of strips of fabric to overlap the joint about an inch either side.

Should a leak test show there’s a path to the inside I’d treat it like any gouge that cut into the hull structure by slightly widening and filling then overlaying. It wouldn’t hurt to wrap the inner hull part of the tube at the joint either.
 
Thanks Dan - that is exactly the guidance I needed. Very much appreciated. I am going to implement your suggested repair at the joint using one of the repair kits you mentioned. I have never worked with this type of material before, so I hope I can make a decent repair - if it is pretty enough, I will post a pic.
 
If it is leaking, it is a more serious problem than you may imagine just looking at it from a cosmetic point of view. If it leaks there, this is usually caused by an air pocket creating space in the lip where the top deck of the boat is attached to the mast step section and bottom.

If this is the case, any kind of "cover-up the problem" repair will open back up again and again, until that air space is filled in. When a similar problem arose for me, I brought it to the best fiberglass guy I could find, he built a special tool to clean out up and under that lip where the top and bottom section attach. By cleaning it out well, he was then carefully able to fill in the air spot, and its held tight since (about a year and half's time of hardcore racing).

Unfortunately, I'm starting to worry that it may be coming back to that state soon, I'm definitely noticing new chips in gelcoat in that region and wear in the mast step. The key here is to do a very good air test and see what the status actually is. If there is a minor leak of air, after time, you will notice it open more and more. This happens because there is flex in the boat at attachment points, mostly noticeable when sailing in choppy water, you will probably never notice anything if your normal sailing venue is a calm and flat lake or something of that sort.

I also recommend visiting the Vanguard Sailboats Repair center here for further instruction/details http://www.teamvanguard.com/2007/Boats/Sunfish/Rigging/repairs.htm

Good luck.
 
I had the same issue which my husband ended up fixing. He roughed up the mast step (so the epoxy would bond to it), mixed west system with some fiberglass pieces and gooped that on the crack in the mast step. When the patch dried I used a drill bit attachment (a wheel sander of some sort) and sanded the patch smooth. It's not pretty but it has lasted through some windy sailing conditions.

There is also more information on this thread:

http://www.sunfishforum.com/showthread.php?t=1702
 
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