This project was completed March of 2009. This project was undertaken along with the Compression Post Repair project, and the Mizzen Mast Rebuild 2009. All three projects were completed in March of 2009.

The mizzen mast step had a broken piece on it, so the mast step needed to be replaced. This meant the mizzen mast had to be removed.

The mizzen mast was doing a bit of sinking. The mizzen mast is stepped on the deck, but does not have an actual compression post under the mast. The mizzen mast step depends on the bulkhead between the aft cabin and the galley on the port side, and the garage on the starboard side. The bulkhead between the head and the aft cabin is on the starboard side of the mast step.

I had noticed the cabinet above the vanity in the aft cabin was starting to separate from the overhead. I gathered that this was caused by the mizzen mast step pushing down from the deck above. I also noticed water would puddle around the mast step, and knew this should not happen.

You can see the details of the mast lowering, and associated repairs, in the Mizzen Mast Rebuild 2009 project.

Here are three pictures of the old mast step and the area on the deck on which the mast step sits. As you can see, the step was in very bad shape, and needed to be replaced. You can also see the very small area that takes the load of the mizzen mast.

Here is what I did to rebuild the mizzen mast step. As mentioned earlier in this section, the mizzen mast step had started sinking and water was puddling around the mast step, causing the mast step to come apart. I was concerned that water had leeched into the wood that was between the two layers of fiberglass in the deck. I cut out a 12" X 24" portion of the fiberglass deck just below the mizzen mast. After cutting out the piece of fiberglass, and getting into the wood, I was very pleased to see there were no obvious signs of rot, or of the wood being crushed.

I then cleaned out all of the wood down, to the bottom layer of fiberglass. When that was completed, I poured some very thin penetrating epoxy into the hole so it would leech down into the wood layer that was exposed, and seal it, in case of future water penetration. Actually, I do not put any wood on the boat unless it is soaked in this penetrating epoxy.

It may be interesting to note that my mahogany plywood core is not sheets of plywood, but many small pieces all fitted together ... very labor intensive cutting and fitting.

Next, I fitted in a piece of 3/4" plate fiberglass. It is a very dense plate called EXTREN. I wetted out three layers of fiberglass mat with polyester resin, then put the piece of fiberglass plate on top of the wetted out fiberglass mat. I then used a level and weights to make the fiberglass plate as level as possible. When the resin set up, I used a polyester structural filler to fill in the gaps and make the plate look like it was part of the boat. When I got that all cleaned up and looking good, I brushed on some thinned, white gelcoat. When I was finished, it actually looked very good. (I use the 36" rule ... "If it looks good from 36", it is perfect!!")

When all of the fiber glassing and gelcoating were finished, I then cut out a piece of 1/2" aluminum plate that was the same size as the fiberglass plate. This aluminum plate is only bolted to the deck at the mast step (see the following paragraph for details). The original aluminum mast step was bolted to the deck with stainless steel bolts. In a salt water environment, that creates a battery!!

I cut out the new mast step using sheet PVC. I do not have any pictures of the actual new mast step. The piece was cut out to just fit inside the mast extrusion. The holes I drilled in the aluminum plate were big enough to put plastic tubing around the 3/8" stainless steel bolts I used to bolt the mast step and the aluminum plate to the deck. That way, the aluminum plate and the stainless steel bolts were isolated from each other.

These last two pictures show the aluminum plate on the fiberglass plate. This solution spreads out the load of the mizzen mast much better than the original design from the factory. These pictures also show the mast being up. As a foot note, because I am writing this in September of 2011, I can report that the new solution is working perfectly, and I have not had any problems since the work was done.