Wood under mast step

[Stu Jackson]

On another forum I read a respected registrant mention that early C34s had wood in the keep step (up to maybe 1987 from a discussion with Gerry Douglas).

Anybody have any experience with this? 

The older C30s were notorious for rotting keep stubs.

[Exodus]

I just pulled my mast a couple weeks ago and the step was not made of wood.  Perhaps it is possible that there is wood glassed in beneath the step.  Anybody want to volunteer to drill into the glass to see what is there??

[Ron Hill]

Guys : I wrote this up in the Mainsheet tech notes many years ago.

There is wood inside the glassed in mast deck step.  According to Gerry Douglas they stopped doing that with production hull #700 (as I recall that #).

[Kevin Henderson]

Ron.... I am in awe.
I am constantly amazed and want to compliment you on your vast amount of knowledge and living history of all things C-34. 
Thank You!   

[Rick Allen]

There certainly was wood glassed under my maststep and in the keel trunk. My C34 is sail number 746 from 1988. It delaminated and I had it removed and re-glassed a few years back. Not an easy or cheap process..  You can view some photos here:
http://public.fotki.com/sailorick/sv_painkiller/bilge-de-lamination/

[Ron Hill]

Rick & Guys : I've got a Catalina drawing from 1996 that shows how to repair the wood in the keel stub.  I'll try to attach it.  Exactly why they put wood in the keel stub or the mast step is beyond me (especially the mast step with all of that compression)??

This is definitely another reason to keep a DRY bilge.   A thought

[Rick Allen]

Ron, I believe this is the drawing you speak of:

[Ron Hill]

Rick : That was the drawing I meant to post - thanks for posting it.