Rotten mast step, wood recomendations.

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adamstjohn

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Hi all, apologies if this has been covered recently,,,,
The wooden pad under the coach roof fibre glass has rotten and needs replacing. Cut it out from the top today and removed the rotten ply, it’s a 79 hummingbird, so essentially an Elizabethan 30, thinking iroko or oak? Anybody got experience please? Thanks Adam
 
adamstjohn said:
Hi all, apologies if this has been covered recently,,,,
The wooden pad under the coach roof fibre glass has rotten and needs replacing. Cut it out from the top today and removed the rotten ply, it’s a 79 hummingbird, so essentially an Elizabethan 30, thinking iroko or oak? Anybody got experience please? Thanks Adam
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I would use iroko. Oak is structurally good and durable but i beleive oak is not as good as iroko when bonding using epoxy, which i assume you wil be using to reconstruct the step.

Www.solocoastalsailing.co.uk
 
On Gladys, the mast step ply was at best exterior grade. It was replaced with marine ply, and is bonded to the deck, but not glassed over. All the borings through it (mast step bolts, and large diameter hole under swan neck) were edge sealed with epoxy. At least I now have visibility of any incipient damage... The pad, though, does sit directly on a king post...
 
I've had success with both oak and beech that had been well seasoned; each lasted upwards of five years. Any fine-grained hardwood should do the job.
 
adamstjohn said:
Hi all, apologies if this has been covered recently,,,,
The wooden pad under the coach roof fibre glass has rotten and needs replacing. Cut it out from the top today and removed the rotten ply, it’s a 79 hummingbird, so essentially an Elizabethan 30, thinking iroko or oak? Anybody got experience please? Thanks Adam
Click to expand...

Have you considered tufnol.?
looks wooden cuts like wood, but doesn't rot.
 
Thanks all, I really want to only do this once as cutting the mast step out involved cutting into the nicest bit of gel coat on the boat, she really needs a top lac job! , so a good piece of wood with the end grains sealed or a piece of the tufnol stuff, that I will look into, anybody used that stuff for this application,? I assume it never compresses fu4ther or rots, if it was gel coat white tufnol, then I could glass it in and have it flush without glassing and gel coatin* the top, now there’s an idea.
 
Sorry me again, stalking my own thread��, my brother who has done little carpentry has just offered me some solid teak, about 1.25 inch thick and the right kind of length, what is the view of the panel on this type? Ta adam
 
adamstjohn said:
.... the tufnol stuff, that I will look into, anybody used that stuff for this application,?.....
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Thats what I used it for 10yrs ago on my own boat, and repeated on a mates boat 3 yrs ago..

It allowed us to create turning blocks (secured through the tufnol, ) and a mounting for the mast foot secured into the cabin top. I didn't try to glass over it as my decks are a difficult colour to match.
No rot , no apparent compression. I suppose you could experiment with gel on any old piece of tufnol but the contrast is not unreasonable and the mast step isn't white anyway, so aesthetically I'm not sure I see the point.


I thought you were looking for wood anyway?
 
How big is this piece of wood?
You could consider laminating solid GRP?
You might even find some GRP sheet to make up some of the bulk?
I did something vaguely similar using some pieces of GRP that had been cut out from a hull to add extra port lights.
Don't just chuck in an inch of resin at one go though, it might get very hot!

I suspect any wood will rot eventually when glassed over in this position, it is more or less doomed to get damp before too long.
 
adamstjohn said:
Sorry me again, stalking my own thread��, my brother who has done little carpentry has just offered me some solid teak, about 1.25 inch thick and the right kind of length, what is the view of the panel on this type? Ta adam
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If you've got the teak, use it. Give it a good soak in timber preservative after cutting to shape, and don't cover or camouflage it with fibreglass. Just my opinion.
 
agurney said:
If you've got the teak, use it. Give it a good soak in timber preservative after cutting to shape, and don't cover or camouflage it with fibreglass. Just my opinion.
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That would require GRP work on the coachroof as the OP says the step was encapsulated. Personally would not use a preservative, but encapsulate it in epoxy and glass over the top with epoxy and glass cloth.pf done well. No water will get in and unlike ply (which has lasted nearly 40 years) teak would not rot quickly anyway.
 
Hadenough said:
Find someone with some Trespa off cuts.
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I had never heard of Trespa so I had to google it.
wood fibres and Phenolic resin sounds similar to teflon, but it seems it is intended for building cladding.

I wonder if it still is since Grenfell Tower.
 
adamstjohn said:
Thanks all, I really want to only do this once as cutting the mast step out involved cutting into the nicest bit of gel coat on the boat, she really needs a top lac job! , so a good piece of wood with the end grains sealed or a piece of the tufnol stuff, that I will look into, anybody used that stuff for this application,? I assume it never compresses fu4ther or rots, if it was gel coat white tufnol, then I could glass it in and have it flush without glassing and gel coatin* the top, now there’s an idea.
Click to expand...

You could use virtually anything to replace the pad - marine ply, oak, teak, tufnol, etc. But if you use wood you ought to seal it with epoxy first. It will then last longer than you're likely to own the boat. I'd certainly want to gelcoat over it, to restore the original finish. I had this job done by the yard on my old HR352, and the new gelcoat was a perfect match for the surrounding gelcoat.
 
chewi said:
I had never heard of Trespa so I had to google it.
wood fibres and Phenolic resin sounds similar to teflon, but it seems it is intended for building cladding.

I wonder if it still is since Grenfell Tower.
Click to expand...

Mainly used for toilet / shower enclosures, you've probably seen in marinas. Also heavily used nowadays instead of teak for laboratory work tops. I replaced my rotten teak windlass base with an 18mm thick pad of trespa. Rot proof, stable and very rigid.
Oh, my mizzen is stepped on it too.
 
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