E35-2 Mast Step Crack

Looking at a “project” ’72 E35. It has some obvious problems—like the cabin fire —but I digress. Take a look at the photo of the mast step area, note the crack. It looked a bit largish to be a garden variety cosmetic gelcoat crack. There wasn’t any noticeable sponginess or sag in the immediate area around it.

What do you folks think? Any Ideas?

To me it looks like compression post sag. Major stuff, that. If you notice that your shrouds are loose, that might confirm it.
Morgan Stinemetz

This is probably no big deal if you know how to work with fiberglass. I had a very similar crack under the step of my mast, and it was a simple matter of recoring the step. I know this may not sound simple, but it really is not that hard if you work through it.

I put together an extensive step by step coverage of repairing my step on my website. The link directly to the section on the mast step is here:

http://home.comcast.net/~independence31/core/looksbad.html


and the projects page this came from:

http://home.comcast.net/~independence31/projects.html


Of note, the compression post was fine on Emerald, but this needs to be looked at also.


-David
Independence 31
Emerald

David, I have had your site bookmarked for ages, but somehow missed the step recore. Very complete and clear explanation of the repair. Thanks for the link.