CP16 Mast Step Rebuild

[BombayRunners]

Greetings! We are Newbies to sailing and posting.

Just got a 1977 CP16 from a friend as a project for my son Dalton and I (Kevin) to work on and sail. The CP16 needs some work and I don't know anything about boats. However, I fix things for a living and enjoy new learning experiences. Any advise would be greatly appreciated. I don't know the boat terms yet so feel free to educate me

When we got the boat, there were two bent up brackets not attached to the boat and several holes above the boat. We know the mast fits into these brackets and that they fit on the top of the cockpit. I have been looking in this forum as a guest and saw a thread about a mast step on a bigger boat, so I think that is what I am working on. We wanted to attach the mast  to the top and tie back to the rudder so we could get a tarp over it and not hold much water. We are in the Orlando area so we are getting lots of rain and high winds.

Dalton banged the brackets fairly strait with a rubber mallet and removed the old epoxy off the bottom of the brackets with a light sanding wheel on an angle grinder, careful not to remove much metal. Then he carefully scrapped and sanded the epoxy down on the fiberglass mounting at the top of the cockpit to smooth it out, careful not to remove too much fiberglass.

Next we dry fitted the brackets. However, it was just old cracked fiberglass on the top as well as underneath inside the cockpit. So I figured it needed some kind of backer board to keep the fiberglass from cracking. Dalton cut a piece of plywood to fit. We used the bracket to mark & drill 1/4 in holes in the plywood and then 1/4 in stainless bolts and some washers to tighten it all together to the boat, but not to tight. Also, it looks like there is suppose to be a pole inside the boat that goes from the bottom of the boat to where the underside of the mast brackets mount, but it isn't in there. Seems like the mast would take a lot of force and need some strong bracing.

This fix should be fine while the mast is down and tarped, but now we want to learn how to fix it the right way. Any suggestions would be very helpful. A few pics should be posted below. We will order the Com-Pac owners manual, but if anyone can advise us on the names of the parts now that would be helpful.

Thanks, Kevin & Dalton

[BombayRunners]

Top view

[JTMeissner]

Kevin & Dalton,

While good enough for now, you may want to rebuild the mast step.  I'm away from my boat right now so cannot send newer pictures, but I'm just about complete with a full refurb of my CP-16.  Below is what the mast step looked like when I removed it to clean up.



You'll notice the long screws in lieu of bolts.  The fifth, central one is a longer lag screw, corroded to the point of failure, that goes from the top of the boat through what is called a compression post, which provides support to prevent too much flexing of the deck top when the sail forces are pushing down.  I can provide more pictures of my new compression post (and the old, eaten away one) if desired (if you search for some of my posts you'll find some of the refurb details). The sixth screw (towards the bow, in the middle) did not go through the mast foot (you can see the head's corrosion on the foot), just a screw into the top surface of the deck; no idea what it was intended to do.

The surface that the mast step sits on is a sandwiched fiberglass form.  It has the fiberglass on top, wooden core, then the fiberglass on the bottom (inside the cabin).  This increases the thickness without being completely fiberglass.  To completely fix what you have, I'd recommend sealing the lower surface inside the cockpit with a mixture of thickened resin and layers of fiberglass mat/sheets to smooth out to an even surface.  The total thickness from top to bottom is almost 2 inches if I remember correctly.

The reason to go with screws instead of bolts (and in particular the fender washers) is that you actually want the screws to pull out should the mast rigging fail.  The screws I removed actually went completely through the decking material, so after repairing, filling with epoxy, and re-drilling pilot holes, I used shorter screws (stainless steel) with neoprene washers and butyl tape under the mast step to reattach.  Should the rigging fail, the mast will pull the screws out instead of taking a giant chunk of decking with it.

Best bet, get Don Casey's Boat Repair book or something like it.  Used that (and online videos) for many parts of my rebuild.  If you click on the embedded picture, it should take you to the Photobucket with many more pictures as my work progressed, though I got more lax at documenting as time wore on.

HTH,
Justin

[BombayRunners]

Justin,

Thanks for the quick reply! Much appreciated and good direction. I noticed in your pic of your boat that the top deck seems to be raised up about 2 inches where the mast step attaches. My deck is level with the surrounding area and no real apparent differences in construction. Is that just a difference in year models or sizes? Mine is a 1977 CP-16. Also, what do the initials in your signature stand for "HTH?"

Thanks,
Kevin

[JTMeissner]

Interesting, Kevin.  My boat is from 1975, so didn't think there would be a difference in the mast base footer. Here's another perspective:


HTH (hope this helps),
Justin

[Salty19]

Bombay,

Sounds like your mast step area has been modified or repaired differently that originally built.  All of these boats look like Justins--or better said, should look that way.

Can you take a close up of this area on your boat?   Sounds like some restoration is in order, and the advice given so far is very good.

[BombayRunners]

LOL ?! I was wrong. They look the same. i'm so new at this and the photo perspective seemed off. My mast footing steps up about an inch? I guess that is why I have a "Swabbie" under my user name. Also, I noticed that JT has a bracket near the upper left corner of the mast. I just have a hole in the deck maybe 3/8 in at that spot. I'll post more pics and measurements later. Thanks for your great advise!

[JTMeissner]

Kevin, the bracket you mention is a double turning block, which allows both the main and jib halyards to run down the mast, through the block at the base, out port side to the deck mounted turning blocks, and back along the cabin top slide to cleats at the edge of the cockpit. You can see how the lines ran in the dust...  I adjusted the block to a more centerline point along the mast when I was fixing up some things, and can share pictures when I get back home.

The hole in your deck (I had a similar one along the front near the mast under the tape), may have been to run electrical or vhf antenna wiring. 

-Justin