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F38 Mast Leak, Ready to admit defeat

Posted: Sat Jun 02, 2018 10:36 am
by Ereiss
When it rains I get water around the mast into the cabin. I have wrapped like a mummy from the collar up with self sealing tape. I have caulked all around where the collar hits the deck. No signed up cracks or openings in the caulking. Only remaining answer is that the water is penetrating the bolt holes that hold the collar down (I have ensured the bolts are tight). Should I lift the collar and caulk beneath it?

Any advise is greatly appreciated.

Re: F38 Mast Leak, Ready to admit defeat

Posted: Sat Jun 02, 2018 3:53 pm
by bbarnewolt
Hi Ed,

If you are indeed leaking around the collar area and into the cabin, I'd definitely lift the collar and re-calk the entire area. Like you, I store with mast up during the winter, but on the rare occasion that the mast has been pulled, I've been impressed how much caulking was used beneath the collar and in the bolt holes. If you have a good apron around the collar and the mast, really no other place for it to leak.

Good luck.

Brien

Re: F38 Mast Leak, Ready to admit defeat

Posted: Sat Jun 02, 2018 5:20 pm
by drcscruggs
FWIW,
I have heard good things about butyl tape vs caulking. It seems this might be one wdy to address leaking around those bolts. Best to you

Re: F38 Mast Leak, Ready to admit defeat

Posted: Sat Jun 02, 2018 6:47 pm
by mike cunningham
I use byutl for collar to deck and 3m 795 mast to collar. Recently the 795 failed and I went to a mast boot of pvc fabric sealed with byutl and big ass tie wrap top and bottom. Would have used a big ass SS hose clamp but didn't have time to procure. We'll see if boot works.


Having said above, you will get water into mast during rain, comes in thru main and Jib halyard boxes. If there has been any rain, this could be your issue.

Re: F38 Mast Leak, Ready to admit defeat

Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2018 8:40 am
by wcwcwc
On my F36 I called under the ring then set the ring in place and moderately tightened the nuts to allow caulk to set then fully tightened the nuts. Masking the area around the mast controlled excess caulk. I used ordinary silicone caulk also caulked around the top of the ring.

You will still get water down from the top of the mast.

Re: F38 Mast Leak, Ready to admit defeat

Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2018 8:43 am
by Ereiss
Thank you all. Inside the mast is no problem, it goes in the bilge but the water coming under/around the ring is killing the floorboards. One question (never having removed the mast) when I lift the ring will anything fall down inside the cabin? I don't now what holds all those bolts up through the deck.

Thank you all.

Re: F38 Mast Leak, Ready to admit defeat

Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2018 8:25 pm
by GeoffSchultz
Ed,

I understand your pain. We fight with mast leaks on a constant basis. Here are some photos of what we do.

This photo shows the external shield. We made it out of ShelterRite and it velcros together in the front and has hose clamps on the top and on the bottom. There's weather stripping on the mast on the top that the top hose clamp tightens the material to. The bottom hose clamp tightens onto the mast ring. The top also has mast boot tape wrapped around it to seal that point of ingress. We place ShelterRight over the hose clamp tightening mechanisms to keep the mast boot tape from chafing through at those points. Under the ShelterRight layer there's a mast boot which has another hose clamp over the top of it. The bottom of the mast boot is secured by the ShelterRight bottom hose clamp.
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Inside the boat I've attached several screw-in snaps to the fiberglass mast ring. To this I attach a sheet of plastic which goes from ring to the bottom of the mast. This sheds any water into the bilge. We only have this up when we store the boat, but it goes up quickly.
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As far as parts dropping when you pull the mast ring, don't worry. On the 40/40, the mast ring is made of stainless. It attaches to an aluminum ring embedded in the cabin top. Clearly having these 2 touch is not a good idea in a salt water environment. I don't like bonding these together with silicon, 4200, etc as it can be a real bear to get them apart later. I made a ring out of Hypalon which separates the two and the bolts provide the mechanical connection.

Finally, use lots of silicon to seal the space between the mast ring and the deck. I don't worry about water leaking down the bolts.

-- Geoff (in the process of storing BlueJacket in wet Guatemala)

Re: F38 Mast Leak, Ready to admit defeat

Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2018 8:09 am
by GeoffSchultz
In a off-topic comment, it's interesting to look at the "join" dates of most of the posters in this reply. Almost all of them are within days of the forum opening.

Re: F38 Mast Leak, Ready to admit defeat

Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2018 3:27 pm
by mike cunningham
Oooh! I like the silicone? tape at the top of the collar. I am going to add that to my collar.

Re: F38 Mast Leak, Ready to admit defeat

Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2018 4:26 pm
by Ereiss
Well, the planning was good but implementation?, not so good. I couldn't get the ring off. I guess ten years of not pulling the mast has its price. I didn't want to pry or heavily use the halyards to pull it up as I was afraid it might be damaged. I did, however, recaulk it indlucing the 1/4 inch space between the ring and mast. There is also a neoprene boot that starts on top of the ring. I got that pushed down hard against the ring with a quantity of boatlife on top of the ring. The entire things gets wrapped in silicon tape. I guess that will have to work.

If that doesn't, I'll ask for secrets to getting the ring free without damaging it. heck, I'll ask for that now.

Ed