Starwind 19 mast support repair

[williamsdeborah]

A friend and I refurbished a starwind 19. It looks great, however when we attempted to step the mast, the metal mast support popped up and the area below was full of rot. Can anyone suggest how it should be repaired?

[Cormorant]

Just did a similar repair on a MacGregor 21. Cut out the rotted area, cut plywood to fit the hole, (hold it up from the bottom first with duct tape while you glass over the top), epoxy in several layers of fiberglass top and bottom, spanning well beyond the join line. . . . Sand to make it look kinda smooth and not terribly out of whack. Redrill and bolt on your mast step. The compression post inside will probably need to be shortened by a hair to accommodate the new layers of glass.

Not too hard, just messy and time-consuming. You can make each successive layer of glass an inch wider than the previous, so it will have a built-in taper instead of a big bump/edge.

Good luck!