The mast track removal has been one of the most difficult parts of the rerig so far. I wasn’t expecting this to be hard because the sail track was loose. It’s the bottom filler section from the gooseneck fitting down to the base of the mast that’s difficult, but it has to be removed before the sail track can be removed.
There are two main issues that prevented removal. The first issue is general corrosion around the gooseneck and boom kicker brackets and the second is years of sealant that had been applied around the mast partner that had seeped into the gap between the track and mast. I applied heat and penetrating oil to the track where it was corroded over the two weeks it had been in the yard, but there was no sign it was penetrating all the way down the length of the track. When I tapped on the sail track and most of the filler strip, you could hear it wasn’t bonded, but at the trouble areas, it sounded solid.
After the first week, I started running a razor blade down the side of the filler strip. This exposed the sealant, so I started applying debond. It helped somewhat, but the track still wouldn’t budge. We tried a vice grip with a slide hammer attached, but that just slid off no matter how tight we set it. On advisement of the rigger I’m working with, we found a piece of aluminum angle iron that I screwed to the track using some ¼” screws I drilled and tapped. That provided a surface I could hammer on. Up until this point, I was working on the track face up and turned slightly to the side where the spreader bracket rested on the saw horses. I think this bent the mast slightly which added friction to the track. When I rolled it over so the track was facing down, the track started to budge, but only ¼” at a time. I added a ratchet strap connected to the bottom of the mast and the top of the filler strip in the gap that had opened up from the initial hammering. With the combination of the strap and hammer, the filler strip slowly slid down the track with each blow and ratchet. It fought me the whole 10-12'.
After the filler strip was removed, I cleaned up the channel with a Dremel at the friction points so the mast track could slide off easily. Now that it’s all removed and cleaned up, I have easy access to the wiring and sanding the last bit of corrosion off the aft face of the mast. One interesting thing we found is the inside of the track appears to be anodized, but the there's no other place on the mast I’ve found any trace of anodizing. I’m wondering if it cam from Kenyon like this or the mast was painted at one point and they did an excellent job of sanding off the anodizing.
Filler strip finally coming out:
Angle Iron screwed on to the strip (note the mangled hole where we tried to use the vice grips and slide hammer):
Boom kicker and vang attachment corrosion:
empty track:
There are two main issues that prevented removal. The first issue is general corrosion around the gooseneck and boom kicker brackets and the second is years of sealant that had been applied around the mast partner that had seeped into the gap between the track and mast. I applied heat and penetrating oil to the track where it was corroded over the two weeks it had been in the yard, but there was no sign it was penetrating all the way down the length of the track. When I tapped on the sail track and most of the filler strip, you could hear it wasn’t bonded, but at the trouble areas, it sounded solid.
After the first week, I started running a razor blade down the side of the filler strip. This exposed the sealant, so I started applying debond. It helped somewhat, but the track still wouldn’t budge. We tried a vice grip with a slide hammer attached, but that just slid off no matter how tight we set it. On advisement of the rigger I’m working with, we found a piece of aluminum angle iron that I screwed to the track using some ¼” screws I drilled and tapped. That provided a surface I could hammer on. Up until this point, I was working on the track face up and turned slightly to the side where the spreader bracket rested on the saw horses. I think this bent the mast slightly which added friction to the track. When I rolled it over so the track was facing down, the track started to budge, but only ¼” at a time. I added a ratchet strap connected to the bottom of the mast and the top of the filler strip in the gap that had opened up from the initial hammering. With the combination of the strap and hammer, the filler strip slowly slid down the track with each blow and ratchet. It fought me the whole 10-12'.
After the filler strip was removed, I cleaned up the channel with a Dremel at the friction points so the mast track could slide off easily. Now that it’s all removed and cleaned up, I have easy access to the wiring and sanding the last bit of corrosion off the aft face of the mast. One interesting thing we found is the inside of the track appears to be anodized, but the there's no other place on the mast I’ve found any trace of anodizing. I’m wondering if it cam from Kenyon like this or the mast was painted at one point and they did an excellent job of sanding off the anodizing.
Filler strip finally coming out:
Angle Iron screwed on to the strip (note the mangled hole where we tried to use the vice grips and slide hammer):
Boom kicker and vang attachment corrosion:
empty track:
