mast step question

M

mehlig

New Member
I left my boat out in the Swedish winter. When I could finally take it inside today I saw that
the mast step was full with water/ice. It has probably re-frozen several times during the last month.
Not good. But the mast step holds water, and inside the hull the mast step was dry. The putty is in place, dry and strong. So I wonder what I should do. Reinforce with glass fibre and epoxy, a few layers over the putty and around the mast step? It would seem a shame to remove the putty that's still strong.

I'm thinking it would be even better to somehow close hair line cracks that may have developed inside the mast step and may eventually cause leaking. But how? A couple of years ago I had filled the bottom of the mast step that had worn with a mix of epoxy and short glass fibres.
Yours Bernhard
 
So other than you knowing that water has frozen in the mast step, is there any breaks or problems with the mast step? If there is nothing wrong with it, I wouldn't do anything to it.
 
It's a tough call. "Don't fix it if it's not broken" is usually smart. It depends on how you sail: big wind, lots of hiking, full rig all put more stress on the mast step.

The possible downside in this case is that if the mast step DOES break, the falling mast rips up the deck badly. REPAIRING that damage is FAR more difficult and expensive than REINFORCING it BEFORE it breaks.

I would guess (... emphasis on GUESS...) that it's pretty likely that the thaw-freeze cycle weakened the mast step to some extent. But there's no way to know that for sure, or know how much weaker it might be ... until and unless it fails.

If you intend to keep the boat for a long time, and sail it hard, and would be sad to see it damaged, or are put off by the possibility of a difficult, complex repair job ... maybe you reinforce it. If it's a real old boat, you are already thinking of replacing it, and you can't get much money out of it if you sell it ... well maybe you just go sailing and if it breaks, Oh well, just take what's worth taking and move on to your next boat.

Hope that helps but in the end it's your decision.

Good luck,
 
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