Mast step box repair

[rjthompson]

Hello,
I'm a new Catalina 34 owner, 1986 hull #195. I was cleaning up the mast step in preparation to have the mast stepped this past weekend and found 2 of the 4 lag screws holding the plate down were loose. Further inspection revealed the equivalent of sawdust under all 4 screws for as deep as I could get a drill bit (about 5 inches). Also, there seems to be a metal plate under the glass at the fore end of the box, but nothing under the aft screws. How do I repair this problem? Do I have to remove all the rotten wood from the box and fill with epoxy? Where do I start?

[Ted Pounds]

Bob.

Try a search on "Mast Step".  I turned up this thread, among others,  http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,3618.0.html

Probably the best advice is to call Gerry Douglas at Catalina.

[Ron Hill]

Bob : I assume that you have a keel steped mast.  I believe that you have a question that can be best answered by the factory - I'd give them a call. 

[Jon Schneider]

Bob, try coring out the holes, so that you can see how bad the problem is.  Ideally, you'd want to use a hole bit so that you could get a section out (or pieces of it) and inspect the condition of the material.  If it's solid and dry, just fill the enlarged holes with epoxy.  When you core the holes in preparation for the epoxy, try to drill them out in a reverse conical shape, sort of like an inverted ice cream cone, but not so oblique, so that the epoxy wedges in place. 

[rjthompson]

Thanks for all the info guys. Good advice to call Catalina, thanks for the contact name Ted. There is a lot of force on that small area, especially if I had the misfortune to break a stay while underway. Cheers.