Mast Boot Question

[Ken Juul]

Pulled the stick over the weekend.  Used the directions found in the knowledge base, very straight forward, nothing to add.

When I removed the mast boot, I was surprised to find the space between the cabin top and the mast entirely filled with silicon.  Took about an hour to dig enough of it out to find the wedges and remove them.  Loosened the rest of it up, mast popped out with big globs stuck to it.

I have to admit, when I have been on other 34s I have not paid any attention to the cabin top around the mast.  How are most of them finished?  Just leave the gap exposed?  Fill with silicon or something for cosmetics? 

A seperate question, the mast boot and spreader boots need to be replaced.  Has anyone compared factory prices to WM or CatalinaDirect? 

I am sending the rigging to the factory for pin to pin replacement, they estimated the best price.

[Craig Illman]

Ken -

re: the silicone, sounds like "poor man's spartite". I expect the factory will give you the cheapest mast boot, a few dollars more at Catalina Direct ($45 total?). I don't think WM has a direct replacement, but some generic version. Since the factory's doing your standing rigging, I'd get the boot from them, if it's in stock.

While you're doing all this, you might consider the Spartite replacement for the wedges. Of course, you'll still need the boot for sealing the joint. I haven't done the Spartite yet. Because of time and temperature last January 2006, I went with a mix of wooden and Rig-Rite rubber wedges.

Craig

[Gary]

Ken,

Pretty unusual solution to fill around the mast with silicone.  That's a lot of silicone!  I use a mast boot as Craig has suggested but do use a small piece of crumpled paper followed by a silicone plug in the sail track behind the upper exterior boot and mast joint.  It does prevent water entrance at that point but I still get some water in the bilge as a result of leaking at the mast head sheaves.

[Phil Spicer]

Two years ago I got a new boot from Catalina for $36. I think a little goop in the sail track & 1 or 2 turns of rigging tape at the top of the boot keep things as dry as it is going to get.

[Stephen Butler]

Purchased our new mast boot last summer from CatalinaDirect.  Think it was a few bucks less than the factory and about 20% less than WM.  As for your silicon, our mast also had a massive about of goop around the wedges.  As we were not pulling the mast, we left it alone and will face that task later this year. 

[Stu Jackson]

Bill Nuttall, one of our earlier Tech Editors, wrote an article about sealing the mast boot.  His idea was to lay a ring of a large diameter three strand line in the hole and cover it with silicone.  So the line takes up most of the space, and you end up using less silicone.  Gary's idea is simpler and should perform the same function.  We have a very small drip, drip, drip leak, but since we're not in the Pacific Northwest, or anywhere else that rain really is a prevalent threat, I keep putting off doing it.  Thanks for the reminder.

[Stu Jackson]

Further to my last post:

This is a perfect example of the power of Jon Schneider's new KNOWLEDGEBASE.

To track down the reference I remembered in the last post, I went to the Tech Note Online page and clicked on the KNOWLEDGEBASE.  I went to the All Article tab.  I used the Excel spreadsheet search function CTRL-F and found two mast boot articles.  I clicked on one of the links and found this [August 2001] (you need to be a C34IA member to access the Tech Notes Online):  http://www.c34.org/mainsheet/pdf/Nov-2001.pdf

Between the search engine on this message board and the KNOWLEDGEBASE, there are powerful tools that you can use to help you find all sorts of information.

[Chris Martinson]

Regarding the Spartite - I had this on my previous boat (O'Day 30) and if you remove the mast every year - it doesn't work well at all.......my marinia required the mast down each year and the first year was struggle and putting it back in just didn't work regardless of the fact that I marked it out with lines etc....the rigging crew just couldn't get it in without a wrinkle....I didn't originally install it so maybe it was a poor installtion ....I'd stay away from it and go with a boot arrangement.....I use a white rubber boot that I cut to size and use large hose clamps on - caulk the track in the mast above the boot and use a thin bead of caulk at the top of the boot - no leaks.