Mast Boot

[Kim Schoedel]

When it rains a lot, we get some water that travels down the outside mast through the cabin and collects in the bilge. Some times a drop or so lands on the sole. Last fall I did a quick fix and put a bungee around the top of the little fabric boot. This almost stopped the problem, however there is the small void where the sail track (I think thats what it is called) sticks out.

Have seen those white rubber boots with large pipe clamps on a few boats and am curious what the success of those are.

This is not a huge problem but it is one of those things that bothers us.

Any idea's?

 

[Sam Vickery]

leaking mast boot

Kim,

I share your anoyance with water running down the mast into the bilge and and the cabin sole. We have 32-3 and had/have the same problem. Last year I used the spartite product to "seal" the mast. The real purpose of spartite is to replace the mast wedges. It reduced the amount of water leaking down the mast significantly............but not completely.

My plan is to construct a "boot mast" from an old wet suit and install that at the base of the mast. I will then cover the home mast boot with a small amount of sunbrella.

Hope this is helpful.

Sam

 

[EGregerson]

fixing the hole where the rain gets in...

That little trickle bothered me...until i unstepped the mast. Seeing the openings in the mast, like the halyard openings to the front, the little hole for the antenna cable and the openings below for the halyards told me I would always have water trickling into the bilge from the inside of the mast; the little trickle outside didn't seem a problem any more. The manual says to apply silicon caulk to the inside of the mast boot where the clamps are, especially to the aft side where the sail track insets are. Happy sailing!

 

[Kim Schoedel]

Thanks

Sam and Valinor,

Thank you for your responses. I will proceed with some kind of fix. Just don't want it to look like a monkey gone mad with rigging tape when I get done with it. I do have some razzle dazzle tape that I purchased at a boat show a couple years back. Perhaps I will give that a try under the sunbrella boot and perhaps around the top edge.

 

[JMCronan]

Kim,
I just did the same thing on my boat. A good product to apply over the
boot and pipe clamps is found on p1171 of the 2007 West Marine catalog. Look for "Mast Boot Tape" (guess what is does). Anyway, it is "stretchy" (technical term) and will only adhere to itself. It gives a nice finished look.

Jack

 

[Kim Schoedel]

Thanks Jack, I think that would work just fine. I can tape it then put the Sunbrella boot on.