Whitby 42 Brewer Sail Boats

This post is a reply to a question posted on the Yahoo Site;

Just my opinion, any other ideas would be greatly appreciated.

"Question; we have a box around our mast in the main salon and we are not sure if it's possible to leave this in place when the mast get pulled or stepped back in
place. It is a tight fit in the box and we are worried that the box get damaged. It sure doesn't look that we can get the whole box out(plywood incl.trim)
without any damage."


"Hi Steve and Janet

The box has to come off. Three reasons. 1. Wiring has to be fed through to the heads for the nav lighting. 2. The mast has to be stabilized (see pic of Jim)as it is lowered. 3. You have to chock the base of the mast the the tabernacle (the box where foot of the mast sits), using teak wedges. Remember to keep the drain holes from the box to the bilge clear as some water will get down into the tabernacle via the mast (something I forgot to do).

Removing the box is not as bad as it looks. Remove the top trim and then just keep taking our screws on the forward angles side, facing the vee-berth until something comes apart. I'm actually going to leave the box off as it lightens the saloon. I will use the wood to make a settee on the stbd side.

Regards

Gerry "

Free N Clear, a 1975 Whitby, has its mast wedged with hard rubber pieces on each side and fore and aft at the deck hole. Not only does the mast wiring/antenna need to be disconnected at the bus, but the mast opening in the deck is angled (at least on our boat) such so that if you pulled the mast straight up it would wedge tighter and pull the deck apart.

Thank you Gerry for your response, and the pics!

What a previous owner of Shamal did was disassemble the box and reassemble it with one plate (angled forward starboard) held in with screws and finishing washers. Works great. We have to get at the mast wiring as well. Otherwise, you would have to lift it very straight up and very carefully.
David W42#321

I just pulled my masts last week. Getting the main out was no problem cause there were no wedges at the deck. I didn't have to remove the box to pull the masts but I decided to remove it anyway cause we want to install the Spar-Tite mast support/seal system which necessitates access to the bottom of the deck all around the mast.

Beware, it appeared the mast box was just "screwed" together when I started removing all the trim and screws but I found there was glue between the aft piece and the two side pieces. After some gentle flexing the glue gave way while removing some of the plywood face layers. It is all inside the box so the damage is easily repaired / hidden. Although after removing and seeing how "open" the area feels now we may not reinstall the box.

Another word of caution, our 1979 Whitby did not have a mast step to keep the bottom of the mast fixed in the step and there were also no wedges between the deck and the mast. Our mast had twisted significantly between bottom and about 10-15 feet up. Once removed the mast was confirmed to be straight and the rigger was shocked that no step existed. We are having a step fabricated and bolted to the plate in the step.

Hope this helps.

Scott

S/V Honu Lele