| Author | Message | ||
     Mike Bergmann Unregistered guest Rating: N/A |
I did my own repair on this last year. There are several causes of the overall problems: 1. Poor original construction - the original glass work here is all kitty hair and paste - there is very little real fabric or roving here, and everything is brittle. 2. There is some kind of metallic laminate material over the real aluminum plate. I don't know what it is or why it is there. The aluminum plate underneath this stuff is very solid and does not corrode enough to matter. (By the way, as some others have noted, that plate is "split".) I do not believe that this plate needs to be removed unless you have much more damage than I did, and had to totally rebuild a large area. 3. The port side is solidly supported by the corner of the head compartment, and the starboard side is wide open. The pull of the tie rod tends to rotate the whole area over to starboard. I ground out of the weak material, including all of the metallic laminate I could find, and built up with fabric and roving bonded with epoxy resin. I made an exact wood template of the mast and wrapped the gasket around it for a size check. I ended up laying up one or two too many layers of fabric, and used a Dremel tool to grind it out until my fake mast and gasket were a fairly snug fit. Cautions if you use this method: 1. I advise anyone trying this to start (after the mast is removed) by putting a wood post inside the cabin up to a plywood plate under the mast partners. Cover the plywood with wax paper. Caulk up all bolt holes. The reason for all this is that the work you will do is very messy. The plate jammed up under the partners will keep the debris out of the cabin. If you use a wood plug matching the mast you can fasten it to the wood plate and use it as your working guide. 2. I agree with a lot of other owners that the tie rod is a little too short. I ground out the upper plate (aft portion of the halyard organizer) so that it is about half as thick where the acorn nut sits. This has the effect of slightly increasing the effective length of the tie rod, because the nut now sits a little lower. When I tighten up the acorn nut I only get about 1 1/2 turns, and then I run the hex nut up from the underside. By the way, I now use a solid vang attached directly to the mast, so the halyard organizer does not have the uplift from the vang any more. The load on the tie rod is much lower than before. I did not take pictures of this but anyone is welcome to e-mail me with questions at "SailorMikeB@aol.com" |
