Mast base and hinge plate

Last year

Now

Bottom of the hinge plate after modifying it and mounting to mast shoe.  The cables pass through the deck inside a short length of 1.5 inch dia hose.

The old hinge plate was bent in a pan shape from aluminum corrosion buildup and years of experience.  I could have cleaned it up and put it back into service but I wasn’t going to do that on the deck I just rebuilt.  Core rot under the mast step came from the individually bolted blocks around the mast base and the mast base itself.  The old mast base blocks were also UV damaged.  They had to go.

The new base plate is from Ballenger Spars.  It is their model for the Express 27 (https://ballengerspars.com/parts/27-hmbe27).   The stainless plate is thicker and the pin is a larger diameter.  

The mast shoe (the part that plugs into the bottom of the mast) did not fit onto this hing plate.  The loop for the boom vang attachment got in the way.  I wanted that loop so I cut two corners of the mast shoe off and converted it into a 3 bolt mount.   The mast shoe has a tight fit into the mast bottom.  It was previously kept in place with an adhesive such as 4200.   When I put the mast shoe back on I used 4200.  I chose not to use mechanical means (bolts, screws) because the previous installation worked fine for many years.

The mast base blocks are now connected to the hinge plate.  No more external blocks with two dozen bolts through the deck.  I use my simple and easy to use soft shackles to connect the blocks.  I leave the extra dyneema on rather than cut it off because it gives something to pull through.   They are made with 7/64 inch Samson.  I can tie soft shackles that look much nicer but I just like using these.