mast shoe corrosion

[johnf]

I have a 35 year old yacht with deck mounted aluminium mast held in place with painted steel shoe. It was starting to rust so I was chipping away and found it pretty poor shape and some corrosion behind the shoe. The mast looks O.K. but with some corrosion. I have removed the old shoe and cleaned up the mast it is heavily engineered but has lost perhaps 20% of strength but I feel should be O.K. Questions is should I clean it up and leave to air as rest of mast is O.K.( or should I paint with some protective coating) and then rebuild shoe in stainless but my second question is what should I put between show and aluminium mast to prevent corrosion again. It may be difficult to keep it completely watertight and I was wondering about neoprene and leaving plenty of drainage holes or just leaving a gap of around 2 mm as I doubt very much the mast will ever move and this would just be present as back up. any advice most appreciated

 

[neil_s]

Why not make your new mast shoe in aluminium alloy? Would help to stop your mast corroding.

If the corrosion on your mast is limited to the bottom inch or so, you could simply cut off the corroded bit and fit a wood spacer under the mast shoe to make up the difference.

Neil