Wooden mast repair

[mike66]

My mast sits in a s/s box with 2 pins that allow it to tilt. Unfortunately, water got trapped in the box and started some rot, proceding up the mast 8-10" or so. I've drilled a bottom hole in the box to allow water drainage and am underway treating the mast with CPES (Smith & CO) and their filler epoxy. It seems to me the mast was gelcoated,but I could be wrong. Removing the gelcoat has allowed the wood to dry up quite a bit even with all this rain. I also have to go up the mast to rebed and CPES the radar and TV antenna mounts, as well as anyting else that I find. It seema alot of water in running down the inside of the mast, so I'll have to find out where and fix it. Anyone else run into this?
Mike

[Blue Angel]

Mike,
I had the same problem on my Albin 40. I ended up cutting 18 inches off the base of the mast. Please e-mail me at: mvblueangel40@yahoo.com for more details if you want.

Jim Angel

[jleonard]

Mine's a little wet at the base, but still hanging in there. I driiled holes to let it drain a few years ago and it appears to have stabilized.

[mike66]

Thanks for the replies. I think mine is not quite at the surgical point yet, so I'll stick with plan A for now. I have to rebed the radar mount screws and will look to see if there are any large openings up there. Maybe drill a few more weep holes in the bottom. Thanks again.

[mike66]

Removed gelcoat/paint two days ago and treated with CPES. This was the area from the boom fitting down to the SS box holding the mast. Probably about 10". Then today used Smith and Co. Fill-it epoxy to fill in the removed rot (about 3/4" deep in spots) Will sand and paint later in the week. Sorry no photos but pretty staightforward. Also the boom was pulling out of its SS end, so I epoxied that and rescrewed. See what happens.