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Not being able to close the door to the head, on a Ranger 33, is a sure sign that the boat has a problem with it's mast compression post. Well, Witchcraft's door wouldn't close and the shrouds wouldn't keep their tension. So I knew I was in for some work over the winter and spring. Looking around using a large level as a straight edge I found that the compression post, which is solid teak, was straight and not bowed as I had expected. So the question was, "what was bending to allow the mast to deflect the cabin top?" |
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A clue to the answer was found in the head. In the second image (head, facing aft) you can see a gap between the bottom of the bulkhead and the fiberglass below it, which is the port dinette settee. I had noticed this gap before and always thought it was odd, because the bottom of posts for the door jam where resting properly, without a gap, on the cabin sole. after looking more closely I saw that there was no gap at the hull sides but the size of the gap increased as it moved inboard towards the post. It finally occurred to me that the P.O. had done some work at that location. I laid the level on the cabin sole, fore and aft, centered on the compression post, and found the cabin sole was depressed around the post the same distance as the gap between the bulkhead and the settee. Here was the problem. |
The Ranger 33 was build using a one piece fiberglass liner for the interior. When the liner was installed into the hull a fiber reinforced polyester putty was used to bond the liner to the hull. This same putty was also used to fill a two and a half inch space and carry the load from the cabin sole near the compression post to a two foot long mahogany two by four that was lightly taped to the forward sump above the ballast. One of the Sailnet Ranger List members told me that he once had the same problem. The two by four that ran under the cabin sole and compression post that had gotten soft on his boat. He replaced the two by four and fixed his boat. In the case of Witchcraft not enough putty was used on the two by four. The liner under the compression post was not supported by the putty. This allowed the sole in this area to, over time, deflect approximately 33 mm. The only way to see this is to remove the locker floor in the dinette locker nearest to the head.
To remove the locker floor I used Sears’ version of a Rotozip to cut the fiberglass taping that was securing the plywood floor in place. Care was taken to only cut the taping and not to cut into the liner. This gave me relatively good access to remove the two by four using a Sawzall with a wood blade and a carbide blade for the putty. A four and a half inch grinder was used to clean up all rough spots and prep for the new installation. A shop-vac with a HEPA filter bag was used during all the cutting and grinding work to keep the dust levels down.