What's lurking beneath our mast?! | Ep102 

The thing is to take your time, and think it through

Wow, what an intriguing video! It looks like you have quite a mystery on your hands with what's lurking beneath your mast. Good luck with figuring it out, I have faith that you'll tackle this challenge head-on. And once it's all finished, your beautiful boat will be ready for many more amazing adventures in the next 23 years! Can't wait to see it all go back together. Best of luck to both of you! The way that conduit was routed through the teak is just crazy, but I know you're up to the task. Keep up the great work, you two are fantastic. I hope this repair goes smoothly and you'll be out sailing again soon. Bon voyage! 🌊⛵️

Good luck! If anyone can figure this out, it's you! And just think--after this project is finished your lovely boat will be ready for the next 23 years!

The Transats look like toy sailboats. So cute. Bon voyage.

The filming of the Transats taking off in the mist was brilliant.

My friends! I'm enjoying your content. THANK YOU.

I see the way this was constructed as a significant design error. To have a tank between the compression post and the keel is insane. At least they used teak. Had the teak end tangs failed then it would probably have been catastrophic. The bridge needs to be one with the hull to ensure the optimum weight and force distribution. I think parallel I-Beams sitting on as much hull area as possible would be a way to do this. A naval architect's opinion would be invaluable Really interested to see your engineered solution

Fabulous interesting film. ❤Really great to see Ertan too having followed and watched every moment of the GGR2022.⛵️😎

Nothing like a serious problem to draw in the RU-vid audience. We're all super keen for the next video

Re your section on raising the mast on the 580 (5:45), here in Western Australia, most yachts have deck stepped masts to enable them to be lowered to get under the bridges over the Swan River at Fremantle to access the wonderful sailing Melville Water upriver provides and the river yacht clubs, such as Royal Perth Yacht Club. The procedure is to use two spinnaker poles to form a bipod to which the forestay is attached and a block and tackle (often simply the mainsheet) to enable far better control of the mast lowering and raising process, as it opens the angle between the forestay and the mast. It works really well, with even big boats like 50 footers using the same process. The poles are attached to pad eyes wide on the deck just forward of the mast step.

Fascinating video Looks a mammoth job. Looking forward to seeing it all go back together. Best of luck to you both

A really interesting video & quite a challenge ahead - but you are clearly up to it, and you are in a great location to get help. The way that conduit was routed 'via cutting the teak' is just crazy! The things some people do to boats...

Hang in there man! You - among all the sailing channels - DO NOT DESERVE THIS! Ha… ya ya that doesn’t help much… you still have to deal with it! But just know many of us see you as … a legend of a man TRYING to ‘do it right’ in every way… so it’s especially painful to see you two have to go through this kind of ‘expensive boat repair in exotic lands’ nightmare. Godspeed to your efforts to address the issue!

So interesting watching you guys go through taking off the mast and all the other sails and rigging. My partner is going to need to take down the mast on his boat (Also a Hans Christian, from the late 80’s) in the near future so it’s good to see what this entails and I am learning so much from you guys and from being on his boat for the last 5 years. Best wishes to getting it all fixed and back together.

Another great video Steven and Judy you always leave it that you can't wait until the next one for an update. Absolutely love all your videos.

To be the contrarian here and as someone who has done quite a bit of boat work. This seems like a huge expense about a problem that was likely fairly minor. Unless there was something actively taking place off camera; like having to repeatedly tension the rig, that board recently breaking downward, new squeaking, groaning, or rattling on different points of sail, the coach roof bowing inward, or separating there is no reason to think that slightly crushed wood on that support was negatively affecting anything. That small tab of wood covering that conduit had nothing to do with the mast load. Not sure of the local prices but pulling the mast like this is probably $25k-ish if not more. I believe the statics of the system were a misstated; the mast was supported via the steel crossbeam that redirected the downward force to multiple pads. We at least saw two fairly large contact pads meaning each pad was distributing 1/2 the downward force distributed over a fairly large contact patch. That patch was thickly glassed on all sides effectively preventing "squish out" and further widening the distribution area. One side was even bound by a very substantial stringer. One can argue the wisdom of placing the patch over an integrated tank but it would be difficult to assess without knowing a lot more. There could be an integral support there, extra thick fiberglass construction, etc. Fiberglass is incredibly strong. While eclipsed in today's world by carbon fiber and other exotics it is still an impressive material especially in compression/tension like this case. The effective distribution area is likely MUCH larger than a mast sitting on a single point on the keel. It is also probably giving it greater lateral stability. Wood has a fair amount of air space and is subject to a small amount of crushing before stabilizing in a hardened compressed matrix. That minor crush likely took place 40 years ago and hasn't worsened sans active wood rot. Given how incredibly tensioned the compression post was having to use a screw post to raise the coach roof to get it out. Clearly it has been that way a LONG time. The compressed wood probably even created a stable contact patch rather than point loads that a harder material might have. Wood is expected to give and expand and compress slightly. To the best of my knowledge Hans Christians are NOT known to suffer from dismasting problems. All that said, I would do little more than maybe use some penetrating epoxy to stabilize the active crack to prevent moisture incursion to maybe discourage rot in the broken fibers. I would not try to transfer the mast load to those wood stringers its unlikely they are designed to hold those kind of loads. The large contact patches at each end are likely much better. All this is predicated on a fair amount of unknowns regarding the overall construction that can't be seen from the video.

Well done, both! Best wishes

Very captivating episode, as usual. Love it.❤

Good to hear you are making progress on this repair, it looks very challenging.

Good luck to you both

Good video, thanks

Really interesting. Thank you. David

mast step problem vary interesting good luck

Is there any information available on how the area under the mast would have been constructed at the factory? As you said in the video, that piece of teak wasn't to the same standards of craftsmanship as is present in the rest of the boat. On the other hand, the amount of work required to step the mast and remove the post and cover seems like more work than an owner would put in to do something like run a conduit. People sometimes do strange things, though. PS, you two are fantastic. I hope this repair goes well and you are underway again soon.

I would epoxy the teak block for the compression post.

Refrigeration lines are not usually pressurized to check integrity. It’s much better to pull a vacuum for a few hours and purge the brazing under nitrogen.

Loving the videos, encouraging for my wife and I! By chance, do you know the make of the champagne/brownish boat to the right of you?

Probably needed to measure at various points between hull &/or floor & deck before & after removing mast to see the extent of the possible movement. Could load the hull up with the acro prop & a cross beam attached to the chain plates. Might be the entire hull flexing some what? Might need a stretched string across inside from hull sides above compress ion post pad point to measure against.

Frigoboat used to do that , filter drier on the wrong side , caused a lot of plugged Cap tubes , gave them a bit of a bad name . You are pressure testing with nitrogen ? I prefer to solder . its a little more work but dose not anneal the copper. That may just be a void above your ballast. You always do great videos helping people with useful information.

I am excited for your upcoming episode on Starlink. I am debating between the high performance or standard hardware and whether standard works on ocean passages across the Atlantic (if traveling less than 10 mph). I am also a sailor, so

I hope you are not fixing something that hasn't been broken! That compression post was so tight. If the mast was really sinking you probably would have seen structural cracks around at the cabin top. That conduit under the teak also doesn't seem to be compressed. I am sure it will be much stronger in the end though.

Did you drill a hole to disconnect the motor on dish? We are just waiting for ours now and that’s how I was going to do it 😬🤙

That was a lot of water that came out of the mast. Weep holes plugged? Not sure how you fix this with a tank under the step. Is a new plate with better integration into beams even building up fiberglass steps a possibility?

@12:14 along the gunwales, is that pitting or just where the varnish colouring varies? (Sorry - probably adding to your job list!)

They must have used the pet Beaver to cut that piece of teak, not very healthy stuff either, I hope he's ok.

What's a "rowter"? 😆

Just subscribed to your channel. In the intro, from the top of the mast it looks like some "spikes" sticking up. What are those for? Anti seagull/bird, to prevent lightning or…? Thank you.

I'm sure I'm not the first to ask but what are the brown things on your rigging

How much have you spent on this yacht?

somethink !!!!?????

I figured out what is wrong with your mast... "You do not know how to pronounce Aluminum" says the Yank. "When are they going to properly speak the Queen's English?" he wonders. That is my poor American sense of humor - you ARE the one pronouncing it 'correctly', of course ;-)