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Leaks via Mast

Hi Steve, Good articles on leaks…

I’ve never had mast collar leaks…but what I do have is rain water getting into the mast, I guess through the halyard exits etc., which accumulates in the bilge…any suggestions as to how to cure that kind of leak?? Cheers, Alan

What we do on all our boats is put a dam at the bottom, above the deck, via a trap door in the side of the mast. This catches about 95% of the rain/spray. – Steve


Posted by Steve Dashew  (November 30, 1999)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 30th, 1999 at 12:00 am and is filed under Cruiser's Tech Talk, Rigs & Rigging. Both comments and pings are currently closed.




4 Responses to “Leaks via Mast”

  1. Robert Middlestead Says:
    May 30th, 2009 at 8:21 pm

    Hi Steve
    I have this exact issue on the boat I own . Does having a trap door on the mast side weaken the mast ? Were you suggesting
    retro fitting a trapdoor on an existing mast already in a boat ? If possible this would simplify things hugely . Are details of this available anywhere ? Like the new look site .
    Robert


  2. Steve Dashew Says:
    May 31st, 2009 at 2:02 am

    Robert:

    Access ports into the base of the mast are not hard to do. There are minimal bending loads just above the deck, so you just have to deal with compression. Depending on the loads, and the amount of metal in your mast section, you may or may not need a doubler plate to deal with the weakening created by the access port.
    Any cut outs should be minimal in size, oriented vertically, with softly radiused corners (not right angle cuts!).
    Older extrusions tend to be heavier and more easily dealt with, sometimes sans doubler plates.
    There are details of the through the deck sealing system in our Offshore Cruising Encyclopedia.


  3. Robert Middlestead Says:
    May 31st, 2009 at 2:13 pm

    Thanks Steve , my boat is an aluminum Roberts 39 , heavily built . Mast section is also heavier than usual so I will examine
    it to see if I can do this without pulling the mast . BTW what material do you place inside the mast as the dam ? Would there
    also be a weep hole for the water to escape ?
    BTW you may be interested to know I use the exact same Ameron paint system as yours on the bottom . 12 years now and still
    looks good .
    I may need another copy of Offshore Cruising . Mine seems to have grown legs .


  4. Steve Dashew Says:
    June 1st, 2009 at 2:56 am

    Robert:
    Internal mast dam can be made from anything, but we usually use aluminum and glue it in place. The underdeck external sealing ring which accumulates leakage from the mast boot drains back into the mast through weep holes on each side.