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Replacing compression post


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When I bought my Smith 30 (variation of a Easterly 30) a couple of months ago I knew it had some corrosion around the base of the compression post. I cleaned it up and gave it some serious poking and it looked like there was still plenty of wall thickness on the steel pipe. I painted some anti corrosion galvanised paint on and thought it all looked ok.

On the recent trip from Opua down to Auckland we were off Whangarei Heads hard on the wind when a particularly strong gust laid the boat over and BANG! The rig shuddered hard and we got the sails down and motored into Urqurharts Bay. Strangely enough everything looked fine, including with an inspection aloft, but all the rigging had gone slack.

At the time I thought maybe the baby stay shackle at the mast end had rotated and shaken the mast, but yesterday I found that the compression post has a fracture line about 2 mm wide around the full circumference. It must have dropped slightly as the mast step pad has compressed. The deck is glassed ply.

Wondering what to do now. Can anyone recommend some ideas or the right people to give advice?

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Photos attached: a couple of the compression post. Unfortunately I didn't take a photo of the fractured part as its under the floorboards and it was getting dark. Also a photo of the mast step showing it has compressed down. Used to be raised by about 4 - 5 cm above surrounding deck.

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Bugger! Sorry, this is a rig out repair. The deck is broken. So, rig out, cut out broken deck, rebuild to original lines, paint etc,replace compression post, restep mast. Sounds bad, but its not too hard. Ply is pretty easy to repair. Where is the boat now? I may know someone interested in the work if you don't want to diy?

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