Monday, May 9, 2011

Spring cleaning finds bad news.

Every spring we spend a day washing winter's grime off the decks and hull. It is really a very pleasant job to do on a warm sunny day. It also gives us a chance to really check things over carefully. We like to get into all the little nooks and crannies, sometimes using a toothbrush to get the green algae off. Up until this year we have been fairly lucky to only find minor problems, but last week during our spring clean we found a major problem. And we are not going anywhere until it gets fixed.

That picture of course is the bottom of the mast where you can see a crack. We think possibly it happened from water getting in and then freezing but we are still in the investigative stage. If it is from water then the lesson learned is make sure water can drain away from your mast! Some lessons are expensive. But it is not the end of the world and we will still have lots of fun out on the water this summer. :-) Stayed tuned for the saga of the mast! It has only just begun.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

ouch!
some other cruiser/bloggers had enough water come out of their mast it tripped the bilge pump, it was keel stepped.
Which reminds me I was suppose to check that.

Peter and Roma said...

It does look like a split caused by ice. It also looks relatively easy to repair. If you have it welded make sure they go a little beyond the crack at both ends... there may be some cracking internally that you can't see. Sometimes they will drill a hole at each end of the crack to prevent it from lengthening when under stress.
Good luck with it.
Peter