J/30 Class Association Forums J/30 Forum The Boat, Sails and Equipment Mast Step Construction

Will someone please enlighten me on the construction of mast step? I see basic fiberglass on the outer section? Any wood involved? Underneath, is there a big block of epoxy/resin and glass just bonded to hull? Anything under this block, or is load directed to hull only? I can see some previous repairs that have lasted a long time and are pretty solid, but its really tough to tell exactly what is in this area. Any input would be great. Thanks

What are you trying to do to the mast step?

There is some damage there I need to repair. I'm seeing some cracks and need to know what I'm getting into. Thanks

Hi JKC,

I had some issues with my mast step before too - a 1/4" crack in the fiberglass, visible under the panel by the head.

I had it repaired at the yard. They found a void under the step - it looked like it used to be filled with an epoxy that had broken down due to repeated compression from the mast punching down when going through waves. They built up the area under the step with G10 so it's solid now.

I dug up my original purchase survey and found a picture of the crack for you:

Thanks. Did they take out that whole section and replace with g10, or how did they fix? Mine has a bunch of epoxy poured in there and is pretty sloppy. I may need to take some good photos and post here. Like I said, it was totally rock solid for the 7 years or so I've had the boat, but compression or cracks just showed up recently. Now I need to figure out a plan of attack.

I unfortunately didn't get to supervise the repairs (curse my day job getting in the way of working on the boat!) but I believe they cleaned up the crack and glassed over it, then built up under the step with G10 to fill the void.

You could talk to Bob Hennessey at KKMI Pt Richmond (bob@kkmi.com) who is my project manager while I'm there. It was over a year ago but he might remember the details (the boat is Ananda, he should know it).