Not looking forward to this, I thought I was done fixing this stuff ☹ The stock mast step does not come out without a lot of help from a hammer and chisel, I spend days on my knees chopping it out. My new one won’t come out either, it is thoroughly epoxied to the boat. I am not sure if I have this issue, but if I do I’ll need to work around the mast step. The first problem will be the 49 years of old oil, scum, and algae that have made that glass probably as nonstick as Teflon. That bolt sticks up some, I could add layers of G10 glass and epoxy right over it and still get the nut back on. We are talking about the very forward bolt, right? I will be even more annoyed if I have to fix ALL of them! All the rest seem to torque up just fine and do not look obviously compromised. If I end up having to take the mast step back apart you might just see the first C&C 35 trawler cruising around!
Joe Della Barba Coquina From: steven.hickel--- via CnC-List <cnc-list@cnc-list.com> Sent: Tuesday, October 25, 2022 2:59 PM To: cnc-list@cnc-list.com Cc: steven.hic...@gmail.com Subject: [EXTERNAL] Stus-List Re: Blocks under forward most keel bolt material? Dennis and Neil, thank you so much for the very quick and extremely helpful replies. Neil, if I understand correctly, you took off all of the fiberglass on top of the blocks, and tabbed a fiberglass board on the top and on the forward face, creating a boxed corner around them and replacing the lost height. And you left the wood blocks in place, encased in more resin, rather than replacing them with fiberglass blocks/ boards? Was assuming I'd need to replace the blocks to avoid the same issue later. Looks like I'll need to grind out and replace what seems to be a very eaten away backing plate on the bolt. Is there a particular type of (am assuming) stainless steel that should be used? As per the smile. I'm actually addressing that now. And I didn't notice the fiberglass separation around the forward smaller bolt until after tightening it to close the smile I added a picture before mostly filling the gap and will finish fiberglassing it on the first dry day. There seemed to be lot of resin and perhaps filler/ mat, instead of cloth in the lower area above the joint, though I don't know what's original. Some of it had cracked. You can also see a hairline crack in the picture where, after grinding exposed it, water drops were slowly leaking out from water in the bilge. As per the mast step, did you have the mast out or is there a way to raise it a little and support it from below to get access underneath? Were you able to get to the wood board underneath and replace it without grinding out that big block of resin between it and the mast step? The boat is on the hard at evers Marina in the Bronx. Have to get it ready to go back in the water in next week. If you come this way from Glen Clove and have the time, please reach out. Would be great to get input from someone familiar with all of this. Thank you so much for the help!
