O34 Mast Opening and SS "Collar"

Here is the cleaned up and polished SS mast plate (aka "collar")carrying the turning blocks. I have over-drilled and epoxied and re-drilled all holes. Behind this is the small rectangular opening for the SS tang that drops thru & connects, on the inside, to the short piece of rigging cable and a turnbuckle, and is socketed into the spar. This resists the lifting force on the cabin top from the strong halyard loads.

Drilling vertical holes with a hand held drill motor is always difficult, and the shop has several of these little hardwood blocks with various fastener-sized holes in them - bored perfect on the drill press. It's quite handy to use to bore a vertical hole in a surface, and over 200 holes did have to be bored in total.

This welded up SS plate is likely the same (or darned close to it) for all of the 80's Ericson's with Kenyon spars. Back in the day there was a molded white vinyl piece that gripped the spar on top and the outside of the vertical SS part of this assembly. Our "boot" fell apart from UV attack, and OEM supplier Kenyon is long gone.
When the spar is back in, I will have to use an aftermarket vinyl glue-together boot, and then cover that up (protect) with our Sunbrella(r) cover.