mast strut

holes in rotten plywood

The mast and the cabin it sits on was sitting about a half of a centimeter lower than it should. This was due to rotten plywood below the mast strut that goes through the cabin to the bottom of the boat.

This explained why all the standing rigging was a bit loose.

Jarred removed the strut and drilled a bunch of holes in the rotten plywood. He then filled the holes with epoxy so that area was now a solid block of epoxy.

Since the old mast strut was beat up on the ends, Jarred made a new one with a new steel pole and steel plates welded at each end for better connections to the epoxy pad at the bottom and the mast bracket at the top. At the top, he added a piece of Paperstone with a big hole in it and another steel plate on top of that to make a sort of Paperstone sandwich that holds the strut in place. On the bottom, a wide steel plate is epoxied onto the bottom of the boat, with another steel plate as a shim between that and the strut.

He raised the cabin back to the right height using two jacks under a rod inserted through holes the mast strut.

new mast strut with jacks temporarily holding it in place