San Diego Sailboat Mast Repair and Maintenance

During her haulout, with the mast laying down, we found that the bottom of the mast was experiancing some point loading and crushing of the laminate that makes up the structure of the mast. To complete the repair, we carefully cut the damaged section from the mast, applied additional crabon fiber as a band, then isolated the bottom carbon fiber with fiberglass, to form an insulator between the bottom of the mast and the aluminum mast base, or heel plug. The repair was then certified by the USCG composites expert. Following the repair, we painted the mast with Awlgrip, assembled the rig and put it back in the boat at launching time.