mast tube blowout

J

johnh

New Member
Last week, my sister and I decided the wind was blowing too hard to take out our 31 foot sailboat, so instead we went out on two of our sunfish boats. The wind got up to 25kts or so and the waves were about 4 to 6 feet. On the way back from bouy 2 in Tawas Bay, my mast tube failed. Because I was on starboard tack, the tube is blown out on the forward right side, it is still solid the rest of the way around and attached to the bottom of the boat. I reacted quickly enough to keep the boat from getting cracks in the deck. I know the mast was all the way down in the tube. The boat is a 1987 model and is in very good condition. My sister and I repaired a mast tube on an earlier boat (1970 Super Porpoise) of similar type, but that required taking the hull apart and building a new tube. I do not want to take this hull apart. Has anyone done this type of repair without taking the hull apart and if so how did you do it?
 
johnh said:
Last week, my sister and I decided the wind was blowing too hard to take out our 31 foot sailboat, so instead we went out on two of our sunfish boats. The wind got up to 25kts or so and the waves were about 4 to 6 feet. On the way back from bouy 2 in Tawas Bay, my mast tube failed. Because I was on starboard tack, the tube is blown out on the forward right side, it is still solid the rest of the way around and attached to the bottom of the boat. I reacted quickly enough to keep the boat from getting cracks in the deck. I know the mast was all the way down in the tube. The boat is a 1987 model and is in very good condition. My sister and I repaired a mast tube on an earlier boat (1970 Super Porpoise) of similar type, but that required taking the hull apart and building a new tube. I do not want to take this hull apart. Has anyone done this type of repair without taking the hull apart and if so how did you do it?
Click to expand...

read this thread
it might help
http://www.sunfishforum.com/showthread.php?t=34216
 
Thank you for the idea. Thankfully my deck is not damaged and the mast tube is still attached to the bottom of the hull, only the side is blown out. The damage starts at the ring the mast sits on in the tube and extends up to the white deck extention in the tube. I really do not want to take the deck off to fix this, so is there any way to avoid doing that?
 
johnh said:
The damage starts at the ring the mast sits on in the tube and extends up to the white deck extention in the tube. I really do not want to take the deck off to fix this, so is there any way to avoid doing that?
Click to expand...

I would begin by cutting one, maybe two access holes in the deck, off line from the mast's stress support region. Later to be fit with deck plates or have the cutouts fiberglassed back in place.


4911495059_f4de06df82_z.jpg

Next I would line the tube with a layer of glass mat to contain the repair resin.

After that, I would start building up the outside of the mast tube (inside the hull) using layers of mat and cloth until it's reinforced about as thick as the original tube. The remaining pieces of original tube will serve as the form to wrap new fiberglass around.


4912098808_4c4050111c.jpg


If your mast tube is attached to the deck with a Johnny Ring like the one in Wavedancer's photo ...


... you'll probably need to contact Laser Performance to find out what that material is and if it can be fiberglassed over.

.
 
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