marvin-miller
Arrrr...
Hi Folks!
About 10 years ago I went sailing in a really, really strong wind It was actually way too windy and just about all I could do was go with the wind and then, gradually climb back up to my departure point. I did this several times before I was exhausted (my sailing buddy, who weighs 200 pounds, cancelled out on me when he saw the wind!)
Anyway, as I recall, my sail stretched that day (I actually heard/saw it happen!) and I also had a rigging problem somewhere along the line. The long and short was that I ended up upside down in the water resting on the bottom of my boat for some time. (that was when the people on shore called the Coast Guard - but that's another story)
The waves were big and ever since that trip my mast step started leaking water. I think what happened is that the cunningham was a little loose and the mast might have come out of the step a little bit and then the rocking of the waves might have cracked the step somewhere...
I decided to re-investigate the issue today and what I found was that the step doesn't leak at the bottom - it leaks further up. That is to say, water will only drain to a certain point and then it remains. Given that the problem seems to have happened on 'that' day it makes me think the step might be cracked further up and that the rest of it might be OK.
If that is the case, can I just make a hole (ouch) and the wrap the step in fiberglass? I'm trying to decide what to do with the boat and I don't really want to spend a lot of time doing major re-construction so I'm hoping it will be a more simple repair given how it happened. Anyway, I took some pics (before cutting a hole!)
Also, my hull number is ZFSA 4786 M82D - if anyone can tell me what that means I'd appreciate it too!
About 10 years ago I went sailing in a really, really strong wind It was actually way too windy and just about all I could do was go with the wind and then, gradually climb back up to my departure point. I did this several times before I was exhausted (my sailing buddy, who weighs 200 pounds, cancelled out on me when he saw the wind!)
Anyway, as I recall, my sail stretched that day (I actually heard/saw it happen!) and I also had a rigging problem somewhere along the line. The long and short was that I ended up upside down in the water resting on the bottom of my boat for some time. (that was when the people on shore called the Coast Guard - but that's another story)
The waves were big and ever since that trip my mast step started leaking water. I think what happened is that the cunningham was a little loose and the mast might have come out of the step a little bit and then the rocking of the waves might have cracked the step somewhere...
I decided to re-investigate the issue today and what I found was that the step doesn't leak at the bottom - it leaks further up. That is to say, water will only drain to a certain point and then it remains. Given that the problem seems to have happened on 'that' day it makes me think the step might be cracked further up and that the rest of it might be OK.
If that is the case, can I just make a hole (ouch) and the wrap the step in fiberglass? I'm trying to decide what to do with the boat and I don't really want to spend a lot of time doing major re-construction so I'm hoping it will be a more simple repair given how it happened. Anyway, I took some pics (before cutting a hole!)
Also, my hull number is ZFSA 4786 M82D - if anyone can tell me what that means I'd appreciate it too!