Step wear - Non leaking...

[minnetonkaHSsailing]

I have an older 2000 boat, 16xxxx. She's faster than hell but getting a touch worn down around the edges. As of late, even with the wear strips around the mast, I'm pushing the wear through the gelcoat. Starting to see resin and fiber only in the mast step - especially around the taped areas.

As doing the full step rebuild and replacement seems to demolish the resale value around these parts... Any way to stop the wear from heading farther downhill? Can i recoat the inside of the step? With what?

 

[Rob Hair]

It's been my experience that the "wear" tape is rightly called wear tape, as it gets sand imbedded in it and actually increases the wear on the gel coat. I removed the tape from my mast, and it wasn't easy to get all of the adhesive off!

 

[Wavedancer]

It's been my experience that the "wear" tape is rightly called wear tape, as it gets sand imbedded in it and actually increases the wear on the gel coat. I removed the tape from my mast, and it wasn't easy to get all of the adhesive off!

Exactly; others have reported this as well in earlier threads

 

[laserxd]

wow that sounds like unusual wear,

for fixing the wear, it depends on where the wear is, if it's just at the bottom you can usually clean it well and fill it in with some epoxy resin, if it's further up the tube then you have to get a little more creative or reinforce from the inside

on my old boat I put an inspection port near the step and wrapped the whole step and tube in fiberglass, it worked great even with a good amount of 25-30kt days