[C38] rain in mast to floor then bilge?

[Tom T.]

I don't have an easy answer for rain in the mast either.  When I hauled the Renata a few years ago, I removed the wooden mast knee below the bast base.

I made a form and filled it with lay ups of glass and resin but I left 4 grey electrical 3/3" PVC 90 degree elbows in the mix, three going aft and one going forward.  I topped the mess off with a 1/4" aluminum plate bolted to the resin/glass base.  I cut the protruding PVC pieces sticking up so they would all let water drain to the bilge.  I didn't finish fabricating the aluminum top plate until I had the PVC pieces cut off so I could have a precision fit.

I ran large ground cables to connections bolted inside my mast, two going aft and one going forward.  The one going forward terminates on the forward keel bolt.  One going aft terminates on the keel bolt at the forward end of the bilge cover and the other runs trough a terminal mounted on the last keel bolt in the bilge and continues to the engine where it terminates near the oil filter on the starboard side of the engine block.

That explains three PVC tubes but the 4th tube was to feed my wires from the mast to the forward seat of the dinette where they all meet a terminal buss.

My original cast mast base was a solid piece of corrosion and it took 9 thousand pounds of crane to pull my mast out of the base doing some fiberglass damage to the cabin sole as it came out.  The boat looked like it was going to be pulled out of the water before the mast finally came free.  The corrosion was from years of salt being washed down the mast during every rain and heavy sea adventure and then collecting in the cast aluminum mast base where the water was trapped.

If you drill through the bottom of the mast through the mast knee, you will let water soak into the wood causing it to fail sooner, which is what I think happened to my boat.  When I dug out the old wood, it was soft and easily removed with a chisel and hammer.

Now the Renata is solid glass from the cabin sole to the hull so there is no compression on wood like the original design.

By the way, I kept the recessed area where the mast is mounted.  I just cut about 3/4" from the edge of the hole on the bottom of the recess so I could later bed my aluminum plate in place.  I had to dress the bottom of my corroded mast about 1/4" so my mast is the same height now as before, even with the aluminum plate in the mast tabernacle recess.

Sorry for the long reply but I thought you may find it interesting to see what happens when a wood knee fails and how to permanently replace it with a fiberglass knee. Grounding the mast was done at the same time so it was all one BIG operation.

Tom Troncalli
The Renata #95
St. Pete, Fla

----- Original Message ----- 
From: 
To: Catalina 38 Listserve
Sent: 1/14/2007 7:08:13 PM 
Subject: Re: [C38] rain in mast to floor then bilge?


I hauled Que Linda out about 5 years ago to repaint the bottom.  My bilge always has water in it so I bailed and sponged it dry right after the haulout.  I had planned to do some plumbing in the bilge.  While it is typically dry in the northwest in the summer, we had quite a rain storm the day after I hauled out.  When I pulled up the bilge access panel, I was surprised to find nearly 2 inches of water there.  It was unbelievable.  One of the previous owners had drilled several holes into the depression on the floor around the mast base so that the water drains around the step and into the bilge.

There is room at the top of the mast around the halyard sheaves for the rain to enter, but it acts almost like there is a funnel there sometimes.

Phil Gay
C38 049 Que Linda
Everett WA

-------------- Original message -------------- 
From: "Gus Woods" <gwoods at dineout.org> 

> I think 'pours' is a better description for what comes down the mast on 
> Love & Luck. I too would like to know how people handle it. 
> 
> >>> Don Strong 01/14/07 9:29 AM >>> 
> Dear Group: Does rain run down inside your mast? Anybody have any ways 
> to deal with it, other than mopping it out of the blige? 
> thanks, Don 
> 
> -- 
> 
> Donald R. Strong 
> Discreet Charm 
> Emery Cove Marina, 
> San Francisco Bay 
> 
> 
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