mast step plate on deck?

Cavi

Member
I just bought a 1981 laser which appears to be in de ent shape. I want to do some very casual racing to learn to race. Anyway I have 2 questions. First on my deck I have a sort of frame around the mast step. It is like 18 inches in diameter. I have never seen this but it looks factory... factory repaired mast step? Ideas? Is this an issue? The other thing is my transom plug is missing and looking at the housing it looks like it is sort of a keyed plug. Is it class legal for me to replace the whole unit with a rostan plug and housing?
 

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The plate on the deck is a kit that used to be sold, and may still be available, to repair a boat after the bottom of the mast tube parts from the hull inside, allowing the mast to tip over. So that happened to this boat. It has happened to many old boats, mine included. Hopefully the repair was done well. If it was me, I'd put in an inspection port and look at it, to convince myself. But some people don't like inspection ports. It's your boat so you get to decide.

Good luck + have fun.
 
Well I swapped out the hull drain for a rostan and sailed it today and it did great. No water in the hull.
my boat has a central block and two cleats one on each side. Is it class legal for me to have a swivel cleat on the main block?
 
If I decide to swap my standard controls for the new style,I will have to mount two blocks right at the base of the mast, which will end up bieng on the plate itself. Do most of the plates have wood backings on them or will I be just screwing in to fiberglass only, and will this be strong enough?
 
On my 20 year old boat the blocks at the base of the mast were just screwed into the foam sandwich and started to pull out. I put in another inspection port and through bolted this block and also the deck jam cleats. I backed the stainless steel bolts with washers and they are holding tightly. After seeing the foam sandwich for the top deck I can't imagine why they thought screws would hold much of anything.
 
Cavi ~ last season I fixed two boats where the new style deck plates had pulled hard and distorted one and cracked the other between the fitting and turn of the mast pot. They were both older boats 13xxxx/14xxxx.
There is a 6mm ply backing around here but what I've seen is the pad survives, the glass & foam at the pad edge doesn't fare too well.
Continued flexing with the outhaul tugging away seemed to cause the problem.
Once the foam begins the crush there's an engineering gap ...
With your boat I imagine that deck area to be fairly solid ( chop strand mat build up ) but would suggest as large a screw thread ( width for bite ) as you can get through the fitting, screwed in with resin and screwed in slowly.
 

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