If it is like the 35, the cash outlay is not bad but the time on your belly chiseling out rotted wood is high.
Joe Della Barba Coquina C&C 35 MK I www.dellabarba.com From: CnC-List [mailto:cnc-list-boun...@cnc-list.com] On Behalf Of Dennis C. via CnC-List Sent: Monday, August 31, 2020 2:10 PM To: CnClist <cnc-list@cnc-list.com> Cc: Dennis C. <capt...@gmail.com> Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: Stus-List C&C29 MK1 Mast Step Replacement Lee, Frequent topic on the list. Many of us have rebuilt the mast steps on our boats. Nothing catastrophic about it, just a pain in the butt. First, many older C&C's mast steps were simply 3-4 pieces of marine plywood bonded together with NO encapsulation. Many years in the wet environment of the bilge resulted in failures. As many of us have rebuilt the step, you will get lots of methods to do it. But the one IMPORTANT piece of advice that all of us will tell you is to measure as much as you can in order to rebuild to the correct elevation and to relocate the butt of the mast as near to original as possible. Given that your step has collapsed, you'll have to be creative in measuring the original elevation as closely as you can but it really is the single most important aspect of the job. Be sure to pick good reference points. The second piece of advice is to make sure you leave a conduit or space under the new step for drainage and cables. After that, it's just a matter of cleaning out the old step and putting in the new one. I made a form out of pieces of cardboard and glassed in a new step across the shoulders of the bilge. Took a lot of layers but it will never collapse again. Several millennia from now, an archeologist will find an irregularly shaped block of epoxy glass and wonder what it was for. I rebuilt the aluminum step box at the same time. Other listers have used oak, thick G10 fiberglass sheets or other techniques. I'm sure other listers will advise and possibly provide pictures. The list is a great resource for this particular project since so many of us have done it. -- Dennis C. Touche' 35-1 #83 Mandeville, LA
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