What causes mast step problems?

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16 Jul 2021 12:21 #1 by posaune
It's been rainy and stormy at the lake this year, but I've been sailing anyway. This occasionally has me wondering about how well my boat will hold up. It's an '88, heavy, but in good shape with no spider webbing forward of the cockpit floor, and no leaks at all. I tend to use an Intensity sail.

Should I worry? Is there anything that I should do to minimize the possibility* or would it have happened already if it was going to? 

*short of cutting inspection ports and rebuilding just in case

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22 Jul 2021 09:05 #2 by Chris Z
The problem seems to occur in the early 70s boats when the tube and the deck come apart. The best reinforcement is to cut a large inspection port and fill the area on the underside of the deck where it meets the tube. Usually you want to take woven or chopped fiberglass to form a cone from the tube to the deck. This also pushes the load further out along the deck. The 70s boats had a gap between the doughnut on the underside of the deck and tube where there was very little bond between the two surfaces.
I can email you want of my repair. Email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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22 Jul 2021 20:28 #3 by posaune
Thanks, Chris. This seems like good news for me then. Maybe by '88 they had it figured out(?) and/or maybe all of my extra boat weight is actually doing something good!

I don't really have a reason to be worried about it-- I was just curious. I think this might be a case of leaving well enough alone, at least for now.

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