In this gapping hole should be the compression post that holds our mast up.... Instead I can see through the ceiling/deck of boat to the lovely California blue skies. While the blue is lovely, seeing sky through a hole in the boat is never a good thing. Here is the next trauma in our mast saga.

Once we got the mast off we had to get the deck ready for the new mast. We have what is called a deck stepped mast. Masts can go all the way through the ceiling or roof of the boat to the bottom or keel, or they can sit on the deck. But if they do the latter they are way too heavy for the deck to support, unless the deck is braced in some way. The brace needs to go between the mast and the bottom of the boat. This brace is called the compression post. The compression post connects the keel and the mast and keeps the deck from collapsing under the weight and pressure of the mast and sails and rigging.

On top of the deck, the mast sits on a plate called the step (hence the term deck stepped). This plate is usually bolted to another plate that sits under the deck (so the deck of the boat is like the peanut butter filling in a sandwich with the two plates on either side being the bread.) The bottom plate is usually attached to the compression post. So the post holds up the deck and the mast.

Usually the only thing that goes through the (small) hole in the deck are the wires that come into the boat to connect lights, etc to the control panel. Unfortunately, once the mast was off and Alan started poking around the old step he noticed that the deck in that area was sunken a bit which would explain why we were getting water running down the compression post every rain storm. So he decided to pull off the old step and take a look. And while he was at it he decided to add a new and improved step.

Imagine his surprise when he discovered that the compression post didn't sit against a plate holding the deck up from under the deck. Instead, the old compression post system has been replaced (we think). The new post was put into place by attaching a plate to the top of the post and then the post was dropped down to the lower support through a major hole in the deck. The plate was then screwed down to the TOP of the deck--not to the underside as it should have been. So all the structual integrity of the compression post, plate, deck, and step sandwich has been lost.

The easy fix would have been to take the old compression post with it's (crooked) plate, jack up the deck and then slide the post and plate combo in under the deck, bolt it down and then Lowe the deck back down onto the compression post and plate. But nothing, absolutely NOTHING is ever easy on a boat. Unfortunately there isn't enough room in the little hole you see in this picture to get a plate up in there--to say nothing of Manipulating the post with it massive plate attached. The hole that has been made in the deck is much too large to cover easily through the small hole in the head liner. One option was to rip out the head liner or cut away a big hole in it. That didn't seem too esthetically productive but was a possibility. Another option was to get a new compression post and smaller plate that would squeeze through the existing hole.

Our friend Jay came up with what I think is a better, more creative solution. More tomorrow.