Baltic 38 Mast Reinforcement

[deluxe68]

I found a 1983 baltic 38 for sale and it has a reinforcement for the mast. I have not been able to find this on other Baltics, there are quite a few from the early 80's for sale. Is the mast deck stepped?





1983 Baltic 38 Sail Boat For Sale - www.yachtworld.com

[GordMay]

The mast on this Baltic is deck-stepped.
The gussets may be a custom after-market addition.
If so, I'd wonder:
- Why the owner thought reinforcement was neccesary
- How effective this solution was

[bob perry]

I like those gussetts. They spread the load out over more deck, i.e. bigger than the physical mast section dimension and they stiffen the support post. I'd like to se if the above deck plate was as wide as the gussetts indicate.

[lov2sail2]

After this boat was purchased new in 1983 the original mast was cut and hinged to allow the boat to go under a bridge in Huntington Harbor, CA. The owner reinforced the mast to withstand the high loads for both sailing and when going under a bridge with the mast tilted forward in high winds. The compression post below the hinge inside the boat is part of the original mast. The deck plates on both sides of the deck are much larger than the area of the gussets, thus creating an extremely strong reinforcement. The steel deck plat below is covered by solid teak wood to finish off the installation neatly. There are a total of three large bolts (one very large diameter and two smaller backup bolts) holding the mast in place if the backstay gave way. Under normally loading conditions, the bolts only keep the bottom of the mast from sliding forward or backward. They are not under a lot of load. When the mast is hinged, the two smaller backup bolts are removed and the main bolt takes up the load. This design makes the mast more secure if the rigging was to fail and allows the mast to hinge forward to enable the boat to go under bridges. This type of implementation and reinforcement would be cost prohibitive today. In 1983, the cost was $10K.