Anyone have an idea as to how i can reduce, prevent rainwater running down the inside of the mast and ending up in the bilge around the keel. I gather this is a known problem with the fractional rig.

Cheers for getting the forum going again chaps.

Gordon Smith

GK24 Margarita, Medway Yacht Club

Not a lot.

I tried gluing neoprene flaps around the halyard slots, but it still came in, and the flaps just got in the way !

Don't under any circumstances attempt to fill the bottom of the mast up with expanding filler foam (it has been done before !). This leads to water sitting inside the mast around the level of the foam, and can lead to localised corrsion at that point. If you ever have a mast failure then the insurance will refuse to pay up - this happened to one of the Falmouth boats many years ago.

Thanks crash, I guess i'll just have to stick with the sponge and bucket or find myself a very tall boat house.

Not only do I get water here , dependent on the wind direction,
but the water eventually soaked behind the fibreglass tabbing on
the bulkhead and started to soften the wood and leave dark marks on the saloon floor.
The problem was made worse by the fact the bulkhead was too close to the forward keelbolt to get a spanner on the keel bolt so Westerlys had cut back the fibreglass and just painted the wood.

It took 2 attempts with new fibreglass to stop it. The first time round everything was damp : it was still raining : so all I was doing was creating a waterproof barrier to allow things to dry out somewhat.
A few months later I stripped it off (actually the epoxy was completely foamy, growing, and horrible) and re-did it as the wood was now dryish.

During Forethoughts long dark semi retirement before we bought her ...
The previous owners had installed a 5 watt solar cell on the pushpit, a second small lead-acid battery, a plastic box with a solar cell regulator, a relay and a pulse counter beside the heads, and an assembly with two float switches and a pump on a panel that was jammed in the sump space in front of the bulkhead.
The solar cell kept the battery charged
The upper level float switch closed the relay and ran the pump, until the lower float switch opened at which point the pump would be stopped. A pulse would be counted on the counter to tell the owners how many cycles the pump had made. The switches are far enough apart to allow water to run back down the pipe from the pump into the sump.

I took this out and replaced it with a human being coming and having a look every few days. Not so effective but worth another 5 minutes off putting the boat away and getting it ready.

What an ingenious solution. I'm considering filling the area with compost and planting a vine up the mast to return the moisture to the atmosphere. :wink: Happy New Year!