The 35 MK I has a truly bad mast step design. It is essentially a rectangular piece of wood spanning the bilge. The step is a narrow piece of thin aluminum only as wide as the empty space under the wood. As the wood slowly rots, the step slow bends and sinks into the bilge. My replacement design was rectangular marine ply - two layers of 3/4" IIRC - well epoxied and then two 1/4" aluminum plates that span the FULL WIDTH welded together with the mast step welded onto that. This has the wood in compression and not being pushed down into the gap. The center portion of it could rot right away and not really hurt anything.
Joe Della Barba Coquina C&C 35 MK I -----Original Message----- From: CnC-List [mailto:cnc-list-boun...@cnc-list.com] On Behalf Of Curtis Sent: Tuesday, December 18, 2012 10:23 PM To: cnc-list@cnc-list.com Subject: Re: Stus-List 30 Mk1 Mast step repair My C&C 30 MK1 1981 has a alumum plate under the mast and it works great. On 12/18/12, Joe at Zialater <j...@zialater.com> wrote: > Thanks very much to all who sent in ideas and advice on possibly > jacking up my mast for the step repair. The question was rendered > moot for me when the boatyard pulled the mast this morning. I had > mentioned that I wanted it pulled, although I expected them to notify > me. Well - I think the advice to give myself some work room and also > have the opportunity to go over the mast carefully was the way to go > anyway. The bottom few inches of the mast appear to be in good shape > so no worries there. The coach roof was dragged down an inch or so by > the mast sagging - I hope that I can just jack that back into shape > somehow. > > > > So, I was scooping out 37 year old bilge water from under the old mast > step today - or at least it smelled that way. It appears that the > lowest point in the bilge is under the mast step - I will probably try > to install a bilge pump or some other method of getting the water out. > Once the mast is back > in, the area is pretty much inaccessible. I will check the keel bolt > under > there too. > > > > I will keep you all in the loop as the job progresses towards that > first glorious sail on a sparkling spring day! > > > > Cheers, > > > > Joe > > 1975 30 Mk 1 > > Mayo, MD > > > > > > -- "The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails." _______________________________________________ This List is provided by the C&C Photo Album http://www.cncphotoalbum.com CnC-List@cnc-list.com _______________________________________________ This List is provided by the C&C Photo Album http://www.cncphotoalbum.com CnC-List@cnc-list.com
