Maststep of used laser, what do you think?

[metsche]

Hello guys,
I recently bought a used laser of 1982. The boat is in general good condition. Sure focus is always on the the maststep and there is some little repair. The owner said, this is still from the preowner and he never cared. I think, it is only gelcoat missing and this was repaired badly with some epoxy / or what ever.

I took some photos inside and in my opinion, everything looks fine. My plan is, to apply some gelcoat RAL 9001 and remove the ugly resin before.
I think about reinforcing the maststep bottom and deck and mybe wrap some glas around the tube. But I am not sure if I should really do this.

What do you think? Optical repair or reinforcing? It smells only like a GFK boat inside no humidity or water or dust.

Thanks for some ideas,

Mike

 

[Rob B]

Inside looks great. Something did happen on top though. Looks like it was dropped. I would not worry with inside step repair, but I'd dig into the deck repair.

 

[Rob Hair]

The inside does look good and the bottom of the mast tube seems to be good as well. It's hard to tell from the photos how serious the damage at the top of the mast tube is - could be more than cosmetic.

I'm going to assume from your photos that you have an access port in the deck somewhere near the mast. If so, much of the work is done. If the damage at the top of the tube requires it, you can make re-inforcement from the inside with glass cloth and resin, and if the peace of mind is worth the effort you can also re-inforce the bottom of the tube to hull joint. You have probably seen photos of the mess made of a boat that suffered a complete mast tube failure. If not, a search of this forum should provide photos of the sickening sight.

I was faced with a similar situation on a Laser from the early 80's and decided to do the re-inforcement. That boat now belongs to a young neighbor and I'm glad I don't worry that he will have problems with the mast tube.