Photo Of My Mast Step Reinforcement

andyatos

Well-Known Member
So, today... my birthday... what did I do for fun? Well, what any responsible Laser owner would do; immerse myself in West System resin, catalyst and cloth and finish up my mast step reinforcement project! :D

For the sake of those who will go through the process in the future, here's a bit about what I did.

- Four, 10 inch long, 2 inch wide fiberglass cloth (sewn edges) strips running vertically from 5 inches up the mast tube to out on to the hull floor at 12, 3, 6 and 9 o'clock.

- Four, 11 inch long, 2 inch wide fiberglass cloth strips doing the same thing as above, except they were laid over the mast step pot corners at 1:30, 4:30, 7:30 and 10:30. This created an overlap on all the vertical strips.

- On these 11 inch long corner strips, I cut them down the middle right where the corner point started... so as to make laying them flat over the compound curves in that area easier.

- Over the vertical strips that went 5 inches up the mast tube, I wrapped a 4 inch wide (tall) strip of cloth that overlapped itself about an inch.

- Over the 4 inch wide wrap I did another one, only it was 2 inches wide. I did this to thicken up the bottom of the mast tube because you could see light through the very thin wall... when looking down the mast tube from the deck... when I'd shine my utility light on the front of it from inside the boat. I'm guessing mast movement slowly wore the inside of the wall down over time.

- I was going to repeat the process of the vertical strips on the outside of the 4 inch wrap with strips that ran 3 inches up the mast tube and out on to the floor but got burned out on the process. Plus, there was a lot of resin building up from all the layers (driven by gravity towards the bottom of the mast tube) by that point so I canned the idea.

Funny though... it doesn't look like there's a lot of layers and resin in the photo. The work looks paper thin.

Here's the photo.

mast_step_finished.jpg


Learned a lot. The hardest part was working in that blind spot behind the mast with only a mirror, one eye and one hand trying to lay the split corner strips so they wouldn't have folds sticking up. And the most useful tool for the entire job by far? My fingers inside a surgical glove.

Glad that's over,

- Andy
 
Hi Andy,

Nice job. You got the basic dimensions and areas that need reinforcing. Here's a couple of tips if you help a friend do another mast tube job.

First take your 0/90 cloth and cut it into the strip width you want, but at a 45 degree bias. All of the fibers should be 45 degrees to each other. We do this for two reasons. the biax cloth goes over not flat surfaces way better than other cloth. The second reason is often only one direction of your regular cloth is structural. The other direction is simply weight. A good example of this is the piece you wrapped around the tube. Tubes are either spiral wound or are made of matt which is omnidirectional.

The other improvement is a fillet at the base of the tube. This significantly increases the strength of reinforcement; however, its worth it to make the strips that run across the hull and up the tube easier to deal with. We make these with some filler added to the epoxy and tool it with a tongue depressor, a spoon, or even your finger.

Nice clean job.
 
The repair looks fantastic! How did you handle the deck? did you do any re enforcements under the deck? And where did you gain access to the mast step from the port center or starbord side? when fishished did you install a inspection port or re glass the deck piece in? If you or any one else has photos of re fiberglassing the deck circle in I would like to see how it looks.
 
Hi Swerve,

In answer to your questions...

1) I plan to do similar but less reinforcements of the mast tube under the deck.

2) I gained access by cutting a hole 5.5 inches in diameter. You can see a photo of the hole at the top of this post. You can see the back edge of the mast tube at the far upper left. Mine was on the port side. But port or starboard, it doesn't matter.

3) When I'm finished, I will re-glass the piece I cut out back in. Scroll down on this post by Voodoo, where he says, "No hatch, just fun" of how to glass in the piece you cut out.

Cheers,

- Andy
 
The repairs shown are outstanding!
I currently have a non leaking mast step in a old 1974 boat. I have no idea of its history other than it has been lightly used, based upon its wear on the mast step collar, tiller deck rub , scratches on the bottom, and no delaminatiion on the edges what would be your recommendation? Cut a mast step hole to inspect or not ? there are no other ports on the boat .
Anyones thoughts >>>
 
what would be your recommendation? Cut a mast step hole to inspect or not?
Definitely cut a hole and plan on doing the reinforcement. I have another Laser back east, similar in age to yours, that had the deck tear out when I bore off in not even that big a gust. It was from the bottom of the mast tube jumping out of the pot. $800 repair. And that was $800 years ago.

The donut is the Achilles heal of older boats. There's quite a few sailors here on the forum who have had to learn this the hard way.

As Nike says, "Just do it".

- Andy
 
Thanks you confirmed my gut on this one. I like the sail in your photo, I have a big friend who could benifit from some increased SA ? Where can get one?
 
Thanks you confirmed my gut on this one. I like the sail in your photo, I have a big friend who could benifit from some increased SA ? Where can get one?
Hansen Sails makes the Laser Turbo sail. It costs $745 and it cost $50 to ship it West Coast to East Coast. Their loft in in Cali. They are a high end sail board sail shop. They have done mylars for Moths and the like.

I bought one recently. Its pretty awesome to behold in person. It makes a regular Laser next to it look like a toy. I've only had one test run in 8 knots. Its 125 sq/ft. The full rig Laser is 76 sq/ft.
 

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