mast stays and rotten floor timber

[Craig Weis]

Lane. Removing existing compression post...on a 16 may be as easy as it would be on my 19.

My 19 has a hatch centered on the vee birth floor just ahead of the compression post that that I put in years ago that provides access to the inner hull where the through-the-hull instruments are located. Additionally this 16" x 16" opening provide a storage area for more life jackets, line, and junque. This hatch has the same construction as all the other hatches. The part that you cut out sits on a lip that you build in.

Looking at the compression post I see it pushing right on my boat's fiberclass inside overhead and I see no visible fasteners. At the bottom end the post is held up by two hex head screws that go through the marine plywood bulkhead that creates the widest width of the vee birth.

If I had to remove the compression post I'd take my "crappy old sabra saw" and cut a mid section out of the post and release the post from under the mast step. I don't know it the post is glued, screwed, or fitted up under the mast step [tabernackle]. No matter it would come off. [Somebody in Florida at the factory stuck it up there, somebody in Wisconsin can take it off].

Next unscrew the fasteners that hold the base of the post to the plywood bulkhead forming the widest width of the vee birth.

Buy a chunk of hardwood or teak, or mahogany or whatever and size her up. And install it as it came out. It ain't rocket science. If screws, bolts or ? don't have to go through the cabin roof, don't do it. Use glue. Epoxy.

The post does not sit or touch the hull or keel at all. Just hangs on this bulkhead about three inches above the hull. The way to lever this post up under the mast step before fastening is to place a scrap piece of ply on the hull bottom and use to opposing wedges to drive a pusher piece of ply that the loose compression post is sitting on up to a nice tight and glued fit under the mast and then sink two screws through the baulkhead and into the post [use pilot holes so the post does not split]. Hammer out the wedges and it's done.


I not being flip but everyday at work I  "impose my will on un-willing aluminum" working on your next boat at Palmer Johnson Yachts. skip.