Rain water on the mast step.

An 84 E35 has rain water pooling at the base of the mast. As I don't have a really clear picture of how masts are constructed; is it possible for rain water to run down inside the mast and is drain out at the base?

While on the subject on how masts are constructed: can the plate upon which the masts sits be removed? The plate would seem too large to pass through the deck if one was pulling the mast.

Cheers

Alec

That is exactly what is happening. My '85 has a hole in the base to let water drain through to the bilge. And yes, the plate can be removed.

Alec, Any boat with a keel-stepped mast will have rain water coming down the inside of the spar section and proceeding into the bilge. I find that not much gets inside the spar in a gentle rain, but with a wind to plaster the water against the mast, it enters thru the spreader roots, halyard entries and exits, and of course at the masthead fitting.

Keep the limber hole or slot clear at the base of the spar.

Someday when you have the mast out of the boat, you can remove the cast alum. base for cleaning and refinishing if needed. That base is separtately fastened down, and you should see those fasteners once the spar is lifted out.

Be sure that the mast base water drain does not send any of the H2O into your teak-&-holly veneered cabin sole... where it will cause rot.

I sponge or suck up the bilge water in the winter in the aftermath of each rain storm. I use a "turkey baster" nowadays, mostly. Works great. Other than fresh rain water in season, we keep our bilge dusty dry.

Cheers,
Loren

You guys are great. Thanks. What water there is seems to be clear of the teak and holly and confines itself to the two center wells of the bilge. A turkey baster sounds like just the thing. A dry bilge would be my preference - replace the stern gland?? and do something the shower drain, which apears to open out into the forward well and is susequently pumped out.

Also the keel bolts do not seem to leaking as I had perviously posted, though some minor weeping has yet to be ruled out.

So what about blisters - is it worth stripping and expoying the underwater section as a preventative step?

Again thanks for all the input.

Alec and Richelle

First the blisters - unless you move the boat to warm water, I would think that if blisters were going to form, they would have formed by now. So if you don't have them now, I wouldn't worry about them.

As for the weeping down the mast. The mast on my 38 also had rain water seeping out around the base, in spite of the center weep hole being kept clear. Since the boat was rarely perfectly level while in the water, any water that did collect at the base would tend to pool forward, aft, port, or starboard, and not readily drain down the center hole. Not a lot mind you, but enough to wet the surrounding wood - which is a bad thing. So the first fall when the boat the hauled and the mast was pulled I added four extra weep holes through the mast plate just inside the perimeter of the mast (1/4" IIRC). That did the trick, and I never had water seep out of the base of the mast again.

There was absolutely no sign of blisters on my boat but there was a 10+ year buildup of paint. My plan was to strip the bottom and sand. This, of course thins the gelcoat layer and could promote blistering in the future. So I applied 4 coats of Interlux 2000 barrier coat to the bare gelcoat as a preventive measure. After one season(7 months) in the water the bottom still shows no sign of blistering.

Tim brings up a good point. Any gel coat that has done good service at keeping out water is damaged by sanding. So if you do have to sand away any portion of your gel coat, it would be a good idea to then add barier coat. Seems as if it would also be a good reason to use soft ablative paint in the future?