SC makes his own luck: He did move away!Good tip L
It worked like a charm. Its cured hard now.
SC doesn't realize how lucky he is that he moved away from me when I got this boat. I would be over bugging him on a regular basis on the pretense I was over there to sail.
Alan,That "cup" is designed to form a round "shelf" that lets the mast rotate with less friction than a flat bottom and, yes, the space below is sort of catch basin to collect sand and other debris. Truth be known, newer boats do not all have this shelf design and the rotation friction is probably not noticeably worse.
What will reduce the rotational friction is installing a mast mount halyard cleat as you reduce the "down" force vector a bunch.
Yes, clean out the tube and coat with a generous coating of thickened epoxy. If you need to sand it to get the mast to fit, mount a sanding drum on a drill bit extension shaft, and chuck in an electric drill, see photos. This rig works a lot faster than using a large dowell with a sheet of sandpaper stapled to it.
Alan Glos
Cazenovia, NY
This video explains it quite well:Alan,
if the cleat is relocated on the mast for the halyard, how do you rig the typical recreational downhaul that goes around the gooseneck and down to the deck mounted cleat?