Mast Footing Fitting

[Watto]

Thanks David,

I was contemplating drilling right through and bolting from the other side.

[Watto]

Great advice David. Hadn’t thought about the need to seal down the hole.

What epoxy would you recommend.

[Peter T]

Great Advice David. Saved me from having to type it. Ha ha. I use West System epoxy (105) with slow (206) or fast (205) hardner. To make epoxy bog I use microlight fairing filler (410) and to make glue I use Epiglass HT120 powder because I already had some. I use 4l epoxy and 800ml hardners because with them you can use the pumps to get absolutely accurate measurements.
Remember that more harder means WEAKER EVERYTHING accuracy is everything when it comes to epoxy.
You can however buy smaller quantities if you don't have a need for such amounts of it but be very careful with quantities.
Also need to know that the slower epoxy sets, the stronger it is.
You need to take the ambient temp and pot life into account when deciding on slow or fast hardner.for instance, if I am fairing, I use a small mix of epoxy using fast hardner to initially coat the fibreglass to be faired or filled as it needs to partly go off ( tacky) before applying the fillers because I don't have to wait so long. If you don't apply a coat of epoxy before filling you will get a lack of adhesion. With the filler I use slow hardner as it gives longer to work it.
For the purpose you are talking about, after drilling your larger hole, I would tape up the hole on the inside of the boat ( make sure the epoxy won't leak out of it) and just use straight epoxy with no fillers to plug the hole and leave it till it is fully cured before continuing on or removing the tape.

[Watto]

Has anybody got pictures of the mast foot position. It appears like my mast foot is located as I’m unsure if my one has been moved around. It’s currently screwed in and I’m planning to redo with bolts as suggested above.

Also if anyone has pictures of the cabin side of where the nuts would be located. A bit wary of drilling through and hitting the arch support.

[Watto]

Also unsure what the two drill holes are for but they’ll be getting drilled out and filled.

[Peter T]

This looks to me like at one time the position of the mast has been moved for some reason. You can actually see 4 holes there with two closer together near the mast step as well as those other two. I reckon there has been a block made up to hold the mast step level when it was in that position. I wonder if someone was trying to get rid of a bit of weather helm ?
If you do have too much weather helm, the best way to adjust that would be with a small bow spit, moving the fore stay and head sail forward a bit. I wonder what rudder you have, if that has been changed, this could have caused some weather helm that they may have been trying to overcome? Interesting, but no matter the position of the mast, any holes need to be filled. I would get a small syringe and aquirt epoxy into these holes in case the core below has been compromised as you don't know how long these holes have been there. Doing this will stabilise it as well as seal it but don't squirt it under too much pressure though, you only need to fill any void in there. Cheers

[Geoff]

Hi Luke,

I just went out and took a pic of mine. It looks to be in the same pozzie as yours. I would guess that the small holes on the deck might have held a small horn cleat. The two nearer the step could have just been a saddle or similar.

[Watto]

Thanks Geoff. Any pics from under neath?

Peter,

I have a rather over sized rudder which actually when fully inserted runs lower than the hull.

[Geoff]

I'll get some in the morning.

[Watto]

Cheers that’s the most worrying part of the project.

Surprised to see one builder though screws were a good idea.