Inspections Ports

Just A Mom

Member
I have a question about inspection ports. See how, on this boat, there is one just in front of the mast......does this mean there has been a mast problem or the mast has been reinforced? If it has been reinforced does anyone have a picture of the inside of their boat so I can see what a reinforced mast step looks like? If I buy this boat I want to know what the mast step "should" look like.

boat_zpsjqyvydjc.jpg
 
Ask to take a peak inside.
Take a picture if possible of the mast tube/step and post it here for comments.
A reinforced mast step isn't a bad thing, especially on an older boat
 
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I have a question about inspection ports. See how, on this boat, there is one just in front of the mast......does this mean there has been a mast problem or the mast has been reinforced? If it has been reinforced does anyone have a picture of the inside of their boat so I can see what a reinforced mast step looks like? If I buy this boat I want to know what the mast step "should" look like.

boat_zpsjqyvydjc.jpg


Considering the location of that port, I would expect that it was installed so that the mast tube could be reinforced. Again, that's not a bad thing, although I would have located the port to one side. There are photos on this forum showing before and after mast tube repairs. As manufactured (not reinforced), mast tubes will show a blob of what looks like automotive Bondo at the lower end where the mast tube meets the hull as viewed through a port. This is what fails. A reinforced mast tube will have fiberglass cloth around the tube than extends down onto the hull inside surface. I'd take a photo of my reinforced mast tube, but I'm not where my boat is right now.

I can see no evidence of the mast tube having failed in that photo. When that happens it usually rips the deck up pretty badly.

If the mast tube had completely failed, in most cases, it's pretty obvious even after the repair, especially if one of the repair kits was used. The repair kits consist of a mast tube and a section of the deck. You can find photos of those on this forum also.
 
I guess it's also possible for the mast tube to wear through by abrasion, but even my very old hull (555) doesn't seem near this. The leak test checks for this.
 
Here's a picture I took of somebody else's boat which was either reinforced or repaired. I can't say for sure which, cuz I don't have a picture of the deck of this boat. I'd guess it was reinforced because I don't see any signs of damage to the tube + the attachment, under the layer of fiberglass. That square part on the bottom, into which the mast tube fits, is where it fails.
->Click directly on any of these pics to bring them up full size.<-
other boat 3.JPG

This next picture is from mine, after it failed -- what's on the deck is the failed/broken "donut," and to the right of the donut, one of the "blobs" that Rob referred to. There's another "blob" that's still attached to the lower left corner of the broken donut. It's not a great picture but click on it for full size, hope you can get something out of it.
01 deck.JPG

The key thing is that in the original build, the builder dropped a big blob of epoxy, like the consistency of peanut butter, into that "donut hole" part, and then lowered the deck + mast tube down from above, which squeezed the PB epoxy out to the sides around the donut.

In boats that have been fixed and reinforced, you have to knock off those squeezed-out hardened PB epoxy blobs, so you can then put a couple layers of epoxy+glass over + around that joint. So the reinforced+fixed joint looks smooth, no blobs -- either like that 1st picture above, which kept the donut in there; or like this (mine after the repair), where I just removed the broken donut completely, and epoxied the mast tube directly to the hull:
fixed- inside bottom.JPG
Whether they kept the donut or not, the joint between the tube + the bottom is smooth fiberglass. The original joint will not be smooth at all - it has these squeezed out blobs around the bottom of the tube, where it pushed into that hole + the epoxy just came out all around. There was no smoothing or cleanup or anything cuz that squeezing happened inside the hull with no access to it after they drop the deck+tube down on top of it.

When you go back to the boat, you could also bring a good flashlight, and a mirror small enuf to stick inside that inspection hole. With that, you can look "up" at the underside of the deck, where the mast tube mates with the deck, which tells you more about what happened + what they did. But the joint at the bottom is where they break, where the "shear" force is greatest - the top of the mast tube is well held by the surrounding deck.

You get an A+ for doing your homework, thinking it thru, and asking a bunch of real good questions. Good luck with it - - you should do fine.
 
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Thank you so much for the pictures! That really does help me to understand the difference when I look through that inspection port. I knew to check for mast step reinforcement or repair but I didn't know the difference in what it actually looked like. So thanks for the pics!
 
Picture's worth a 1000 words as they say + that's pretty much true for this sort of stuff.

Let us all know how it turns out if you can - - after a couple of posts n all you've got us kinda rooting for you + your son.
 
If there has been some work done on the mast step, it would be wise to check the mast rake from side to side just to make sure the mast step has been put back centrally.
 
This is a picture of an untouched mast step on a 1978 Laser
 

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This is a picture of an untouched mast step on a 1978 Laser

Thank you for the picture. All of the pictues will help me a lot.

We go to view the boats (yes, plural ;) ) on Sept 1st as the seller is away.

Y'all have been so kind and helpful.
 

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