E32-2 Mast step reinforcement

Hey all.

When I first purchased my boat in August, I noticed right away that the mast cabin top was compressing a little bit right under the mast. Since the previous owner hadn't tightened the rigging in a while, I wanted to beef up the mast so that I could tighten the rigging and not worry about additional compression under the mast. I found some information about how Ericson recommended, as well as a few other owners methods.

Here is what I did.

First I removed the mantle(I think that's the right word).



Next I loosened the mast rigging on the outside. Then I used a house jack that I have, along with wooden skids to angle the jack at the bottom and to spread the load across the cabin top, to raise the mast.



Using a hacksaw mostly, I cut out portions of the door posts right up to the cabin top.



Continue on next post.

Continued...and a question at the end.

Then, I slid a previously cut piece of 1/4" x 4" aluminum into the slots that I cut. It fit right up to the fiberglass flanges on either side of the doorway bulkheads. I then reattached the mantle with new holes drilled through the aluminum.

I then cut a mahogany post to tightly fit up underneath the old mantle. This jammed up under the mantle with substantial pressure. I screwed it onto the existing post that holds the door hinge on. This is the key to the retrofit as it moves support for the mast more directly under the mast.

Here you can see the mast through the hatch, before installing the aluminum and the mahogany support post, and how it doesn't have support directly under it.


Here is the repair from forward of the bulkhead. Notice that I was able to do this entire repair without removing the door. I did have to trim it a bit on the top of the door because the added thickness of aluminum did not allow the door to close. This was easily accomplished with a cordless jigsaw. Either a previous owner had already trimmed the top of the door once or the factory was rather sloppy because it was a little bit irregular to begin with. The trim job I did would not pass for a shipwrights work.



Final positioning of the sistered post and a piece of trim to conceal the joint a bit.


Last but not least, I have to sand and finish.

A couple of thoughts about the job that I did:

The repair found in the E32 book suggests using a square plate of aluminum above the posts on the port side. If you look at the photos, you see there is a fiberglass "flange" that sandwiches the top of the bulkhead right up to the door posts. To me, just using a square plate of aluminum up to the flange would not spread the load enough. You would have to actually cut into the fiberglass up there to add a square of aluminum of the proper size to spread the load. You would end up with a square plate, clamped on one edge, which could tend to bend without support on its outer end. (I hope that is understandable).

The posts on the hinge side go all the way to the floor. Obviously, transferring downward pressure to the keel. The post on the starboard side does not directly transfer any weight to the floor. It is more or less free floating. It is really only there to trim out that side of the doorway. I am a little bit concerned that by installing the aluminum across the doorway and up above this post, too much additional pressure will be applied downward on it and it could want to sheer off. In the end I did it this way anyway because I believe that the added post on the port side will be doing most of the "heavy lifting" for this repair and that the additional pressure on the starboard side will be trivial. I will need to monitor it.

Could the factory have actually cut out the fiberglass "flange" when they installed their aluminum plate? I would really like to see how they did it.

I hope they used mahogany like I did. :dunce: I wish I figured that out before milling the wood. If the rest of it is teak, as I suspect now, the new post I added will be redder in color.
I choose to call it a feature rather than a failure!


Need some help here.

Can anyone help me decide what stain/varnish to use to match the new post to the old? What kind? I have seen a few post about stains but would appreciate some direct thoughts as I am color challenged as well as inexperienced at staining.

Thanks for your thoughts.
Steve

Very good explanation and documentation. I've had my boat for over 20 years, and two surveys have said that some sort of reinforcement has been done under the mast step, but I see no particular evidence of this except for some paint, and it doesn't look anything like yours. For example: no mantle. There's a wide bump in the fiberglass cabin liner instead. I wonder if this was a design change between my '69 and your model; I have no idea what's under that bump. Also: no sistering support like you added. I've noticed that my head door is sticking a little when I try to close it and I suspect that the cabin top is compressing. I have no idea what's between the deck and that bump, but I've had some balsa core rot in other areas of the deck and sure hope this isn't that.

I like the way you've placed that support closer in line with the mast's compressive force.

As for stain, there is no magical formula that will allow you to match your existing aged, varnished mahogany -- and it is almost certainly mahogany, not teak. You might get lucky enough with an off-the-shelf Home Depot color; try a swatch, and wipe it off with thinner or acetone if you don't like it. Better, though, is to take a piece of what you want to match, and a piece of what you've got, to a good paint store and they can whip up a batch of custom stain that will do the job. It's a lot like matching paint.

Some questions:

1 - would it have been possible to jack the cabin top up without trimming down the post? My tool of choice for that trim, by the way, would be an oscillating saw (Fein Multimaster or Harbor Freight knockoff).

2 - why do you suppose they put all those screws in the mantle? Either it's in there, or it isn't.

3 - are you concerned about aluminum corrosion? My choice for that plate would have been a slab of 1/4" or 5/16" G10, although I am unabashedly a G10 addict and possibly a G10 abuser.

There is a compression beam all the way across the top of your bulkhead. That is what is underneath what appears to be a fiberglass flange. The flange is just a jog in the headliner. Underneath the flange is about 1 1/2 inch plywood. What the aluminum does is simply prevent the beam from distorting. It isn't changing anything from the support system that wasn't there to begin with, so I wouldn't worry about it overloading the starboard side bulkhead. The most important thing you have done, structurally, is put that sistered post in.

I guarantee the wood in your salon is mahogany. The mahogany in Ericsons of your vintage had a yellowish cast or at least mine did. Someone told me the wood yellows with age. Don't know if that's true. I am pretty sure though that if you finish it clear, without stain, it will come out browner (not necessarily redder) than the surrounding veneer (your bulkhead and the floating panel in your door). It may not look that much different than the jamb and rails in your door, which are solid wood as is your post. I would finish a small section of the post to see how it looks. If you don't like it you can just sand it off.

I would start with wood leftover pieces and different varnishes, from clear polyurethane right through traditional varnishes. Satin, unless you have gloss below. No worries about UV, so you can use anything.

I recently did some staining and found that treatment with Minwax pre-stain "wood conditioner" made a a difference in the grain look. But it's all by trial, like matching gelcoat color. And staining tends to make big changes, although "natural" can be subtle.

In my opinion your trim doesn't have to match exactly, since it looks like you made a pretty job of it and there's nothing wrong with some contrast.

My compression post repair is on this thread.

The often mentioned beam .. on my 72' didn't exist

http://www.ericsonyachts.org/infoexchange/showthread.php?10784-E-32-2-Mast-support

Cheers, Greg