New boat mast step issue

B

barji02

New Member
I have a new boat #185449 with some gelcoat missing at the base of the mast step hole. I have sailed the boat about ten times and upon washing the boat today i noticed some gelcoat missing at the base of the mast hole. I bent a coat hanger to probe the damage and it appears that it is not a hole but about two inch long by a half inch tall piece of gelcoat is gone. I don't know if this is a warranty issue or not but i will report what i hear from the dealer. I know there is a lot of info on the forum regarding inspection ports and mast step repair, so if i have to make the repair myself, well so be it. The boat has not been turtled and i always secure the mast to the deck as the class rules state. Any feedback would be helpfull.

Thanx

barji02
 
It's normal for the base of the mast step to wear out year by year (from the mast rotating on it) However, it sounds like your problem is an actual void, or damaged area, inside the walls of the mast step?

Sorry to hear that you're having trouble with a new boat, but your in good hands with your dealer if there is in fact a problem.
 
One of the reasons I don't bitch about the price of a new boat is Vanguard has a pretty darned good history of taking care of stuff like this.
If the piece of gelcoat is from the wall of the tube, and if the color exposed by the loss of the chip is different than the tube's gelcoat...be concerned.

If the chip is just gelcoat that used to be on top of the metal disc...I suspect the chip does not matter a bit.
 
Yes. the missing piece of gelcoat is from the wall of the mast step tube just above the bottom of the tube. When i look down i can see black where the gelcoat used to be, about 2in by one half inch. I filled the tube about half way with water , no leaks.
I have contacted the dealer yesterday morning and they said they will get back to me.....I am concerned that this has failed on a critical stress point with a new boat, but i love the boat and the sport, so i guess i will work the problem with the dealer and hopfully it will get repaired correctly.

Thanks everyone for your input and advice, it helps very much.

Jim
 
Here is the response from the Clews and Strawbridge dealer regarding the mast step issue...

JIM,
MY WARRANTY ADMINISTRATOR WAS OUT YESTERDAY...HE HAS ALL YOUR INFO...WE NEED
TO CALL VANGUARD AND OBTAIN INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO HANDLE YOUR
SITUATION.THEN I NEED TO SCHEDULE MY GEL COAT REPAIR TECH AND ARRANGE FOR
THE BOAT AND HIM TO BE HERE AT THE SAME TIME.THIS MAY TAKE SEVERAL WEEKS
DEPENDING ON HIS SCHEDULE...I WILL BE IN TOUCH-THANX

Daniel R Vaughan
Clews Marine Service Manager
610-644-3529 x235

Opinions, thoughts?.....
 
Here's my $.02 worth.

I'm sure your feeling that you paid a lot of money for a perfect boat and missing some days of sailing due to a possible manufacturing defect is not meeting your expectations of what you paid for. I would ask the dealer to guarentee (in writing if you feel it's nec) that your continued use of the boat until they fix it will not cause any more damage and if it does that they will "make it right" with you.
 
49208 said:
Here's my $.02 worth.

I'm sure your feeling that you paid a lot of money for a perfect boat and missing some days of sailing due to a possible manufacturing defect is not meeting your expectations of what you paid for. I would ask the dealer to guarentee (in writing if you feel it's nec) that your continued use of the boat until they fix it will not cause any more damage and if it does that they will "make it right" with you.
Click to expand...

Follow up:
Now that you have some damage, I would be extra careful stepping the mast, so that you don't chip off additional gelcoat in that area.

BTW, fixing this is not trivial because the damaged area is hard to get to. Please tell us how it's done; I have the same problem in my 2002 boat.
 
Update....

I am still working with the dealer on this repair issue, so the outcome has yet to be resolved. As it appears it may take some time until the boat can even be looked at and the damage assessed. So far i am not impressed with the quality of workmanship or the dealer response with this new boat and i feel i may have made a $5000 mistake. From what i have read on this forum this is not common with a new
boat, and it leads me to believe that this is limited to "My Boat". I will keep everyone posted. Again...thanks everyone for there advice and support.

Jim
 
I forgot to post this....

Upon futher inspection last night i also noticed that there is more damage to the bottom this mast hole. There are more cracks and an indentation of the gelcoat next to the largest area of missing gelcoat. I have a feeling that if and when the dealer looks at this, i would'nt be suprised if they wanted toreplaced the entire mast step.
If that is the only fix, they will be hacking a new boat with a grafted mast step hole, we'll see.
 
If you were to post a pic or two here, we can give you better opinions on what we might do if we had to repair it...

If it starts to get structural in nature, I would not want a mast step replacement on my brand new boat - I would either ask them to put an inspection port in it and fix it from inside the hull (except for the gel coat) and give me a reasonable sum of money back to account for the loss of value
-or-
I would be asking for a new hull
 
That's worth a try, i'll give a shot, but i don't know if it will revele the damage taking
pictures down a 14inch hole. I will not allow the dealer to graft a new mast step on a new boat, that will take this to a different level.
 
I am a novice Laser sailor, but have extensive experience with gel coat/boats/anything related to the water.
My opinion is that you are worrying too much about a monor issue with the boat. Perhaps the dealer could be treating you with more care (but that is a seperate issue). My guess is that the gelcoat is coming away from the glass due to some small defect when they were applying it on the mould. Gouvernail is more of an expert than me, but I would just ask them to re-prep the bottom of the mast step, perhaps pour some epoxy in the hole and re-gelcoat the base. The cracks are likely only in the gelcoat and not a structural issue.
Just my two-cents.
Good Luck and Happy Sailing!
 
The missing gelcoat and related damage is located on the mast step hole wall where the bottom of the mast exerts load on the mast step wall facing the rear of the boat. It may or not be structural, this has yet to be determined. In my humble opion any damage created by normal loading on a "new boat" in a critical area such as the mast step hole that has only been sailed half a dozen times is not good. What you
suggest make sense and sounds like a good fix, i'll pass that on the dealer.

Thanks

Jim
 
A) Unfortunately it looks like you are dealing with a large powerboat dealer that also happens to sell sailboats and they are handling your warranty issue like a powerboat dealer (who has a WARRANTY ADMINISTRATOR anyway??)

B) It's either a BIG deal with a void in the side of the mast step that caused the gelcoat to breakfree in which case do not settle for anything less then a NEW hull. If the dealer wants to repair it eith port holes, replacement step etc., call Vanguard direct complain very load and don't settle for anything but a new hull

OR

C) It's not a big deal (which I'm guessing is the case), there is a little chopped strand and gelcoat sprayed on top of the metal disk in the base that wears away after a few sails and that is what you are looking at. Also the blue plastic plug on mast base leaves marks inside the tube. You need to get a camera in there and take pics, use a big ass flashlight to light it up and take some digi shots
 
Here is the update...

I chose to work with another dealer in allentown who was responsive and interested in this issue. They feel that this is a minor issue of the lamanate seperating from the under layment mat. The repair was made using (Marine-Tex)
epoxy and they did a good job feathering the epoxy smooth. I am waiting until this
weekend to sail so the epoxy can cure completly. Mabey this is nothing to worry about and the repair will hold, but i can't help wonder why this failed with a brand
new boat that has been sailed lightly.
 
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