Cabin Sole and other issues

[shadypark]

Greetings all,
After about a year of ownership of my first boat i decided to replace the old decaying deck in the interior cabin. I soon discovered badly decayed (waterlogged) support boards for the floor as well as under the mast.
i have since removed these and kept the best as a template, but now there is nothing under the pole (sorry dont know the correct term) that supports the mast.

After a week of this i noticed that there was some sagging in the interior and some of the standing rigging is a bit loose.

So.... how do i fix this? i have quite a bit of research and cant find anything so as always any suggestions are appreciated!

thanks,

Ken

i am unable to post images as i do not have enough posts at this time.

[Faster]

You really need to take the rig down if you've compromised the support for the compression post. The rig tension will deform your cabin top, as is probably already occurring.

Once the rig is down, rebuild the supports (floors and stringers), and reinstall the compression post before putting the rig in again. You should probably have a close look at the mast step area for cracking damage as a result of what's happened.. there may be some more glass work required there.

It will be helpful to know more about your boat too.

Good luck!

[RAGTIMEDON]

Looking at your "public profile" I see you have a 1975 Hunter 25. You and a friend can lower the mast with a long line. Do it NOW! Take the rig off before you fatally distort your cabin top, and keep it down until the supports are rebuilt. If you get those supports in place correctly and have a hard time replacing the compression post, an auto jack can help. But be darn careful you don't distort the cabin top too far up, trying to replace the compression post.

[sailingdog]

Shady-

Are you talking about your Hunter 25 or some other boat. You really should say what boat you're talking about in the post, as it makes it a lot easier to discuss. More information is better than less.

As RTD and Faster have pointed out, you really should unstep the mast, to prevent the mast and rigging from damaging the cabin top any further. You should probably also post some photos of the damaged areas.

I'd highly recommend you read the POST in my signature, since it will help you get more out of your time here, like explaining how to write a good OP... post photos, etc.

The best way to post photos is to use a photo sharing website, like flickr.com or photobucket.com and then link to the photos using the IMG tags provided by them.

Have you looked at the bulkheads in the cabin. If the stringers and floors in the boat have rotted, there's a good chance that the bottom of the bulkheads are also rotted. If you're going to fix the boat up, best to do all of that type of work at the same time.

[shadypark]

All:
Thanks for the quick assistance!! I had a few minutes this afternoon to run out to the marina to perform what i hope is a good temporary solution.

Basically, I took a brick cut it to make it shorter to allow it to be wedged beneath the post shimmed it to eliminate any gap. I know that this is probably not ideal but it was the best i could do in the short term.

Sailingdog,
Yes, this is for the Hunter 25, and I will see about posting some images. I recently painted the interior of the cabin and all the bulkheads looked pretty good.

thanks again!!

[Faster]

Shady...

Unfortunately by wedging a brick under the post you are not likely to have restored the proper height.. the rig will still need to be removed to properly repair this situation. You may prevent further damage, and that's good, but in reality the rig does have to come off now so that you can assess what's happend to the cabintop and be able to repair the floors and the post support step properly (the compression post should also be removed for the duration of this job)

As for your bulkheads you might want to go in under the settees and probe the wood with a sharp awl to see how sound it really is.. appearances can be deceiving, and freshly painted or not, now is the time to address that issue if it exists.

This is not a small job, and it's one that has to be done properly to preserve the integrity and safety of the boat and the rig.

[sailingdog]

Again, you really need to check to see if the bulkheads are sound throughout. If not, they need to come out and be replaced...or at least the unsound portions need to be removed and have replacement wood scarfed in.

I'd second everything faster said... you may have prevented further damage, but you need to drop the mast and repair the compression post, floors and stringers, cabin sole and bulkheads.