Need advice - wood rot on my main mast

[SkiprJohn]

It doesn't have to be a perfect match but if you can find the same weight and rot resistance it would be good. I've had some very bad experiences with philippine mahogany so would stay away from that. Sitka spruce had so many good characteristics like straight grain, light weight and fairly good rot resistance that it was the wood of choice for lots of years. It is very hard to find now. Straight grain #1 Doug fir is just as good for small areas. It has great strength but is a bit heavier.
Good luck.
JohnL

[Steve Rust]

Originally Posted by tom151

Your diagnosis of the winch being the source of the problem may be right on the money.
If you haven't already... also might consider removing the winch and reinstalling after over-drilling the mounting holes and filling them with extended epoxy - consider the aluminum powder filler if you're going to thread the bolts into the epoxy.
Refer to the Gougeon site for details.

This is a really good idea. I do this with all the fasteners on my epoxy ply trimaran. I do this in a couple of ways depending on circumstances. For through bolting drill an oversize hole, take a Qtip and dab in a coat of straight epoxy then tape the back of the hole and fill with thickened epoxy. When dry drill appropriate size hole for fasteners. For screw fastening I actually use course thread machine screws/bolts and drill a hole again oversize and also a bit deeper than the fastener. Now the next step I have done two different ways. You can tap threads into the cured epoxy with a tap and die set. The other way is to set the bolt into the wet epoxy to cast in your threads. Spray the fastener with a release agent. I use WD 40 and wrap them in a tissue to soak up any extra so they go in dry. Stick the fastener in the wet epoxy and when it cures it should back out. Now when you put it all together use a washer or piece of hardware and the hole should be a bit deeper than the fastener. You may want the epoxy a more a syrup texture as opposed to putty for this method.

Spruce, fir, pine, and cedar would be common wood for masts and I would think for a small repair any would work fine.

[billr]

Instead of putting WD40 on the threads of the bolt, before you put it in the wet epoxy (to cast in the treads), I have tried a different tack since I didn't know what the WD40 would do to the epoxy. I would rub a little oil (from my face, since I sweat a lot in the sun) on the bolt threads, and then put a thin layer of spray paint on the bolt threads with Krylon or some other cheap paint. After that dried completely, then I'd put the bolts in the wet epoxy. After the epoxy set, the bolts could be backed out very cleanly.

[cptnandy]

First off on a mast you should use a 12:1 scarff, at least that is what I was taught by my third generation boatbuilding teacher. Second I would use a bit of carnuba wax on the bolt threads instead of oil from any sourse. That is from personal experiance of useing this method of hardware bonding for the past 18 years.