Stop Water Leaking Down
the Mast into the Cabin
with a Simple Standpipe and Wire Loop
When I purchased Avanti, I found a nice puddle waiting at the
base of the mast compression post on the sole of the cabin after medium
to hard rain. This was obviously not a good thing and was a
high priority to fix. When I had the mast down the first winter
of ownership
(2003-2004), I installed a simple standpipe made from a piece of
aluminum tubing epoxied into the shoe at the step of the mast.
Aluminum was chosen specifically to avoid electrolysis issues with the
shoe. This tubing is higher than the sides of the shoe, so that
the shoe would overflow and water flow out between the mast and the
shoe before going down
the standpipe. In addition, weep holes were drilled port and
starboard after the mast was restepped. The following photos show
the standpipe and the weep holes. What is not shown is that I
applied one of my favorite sealers over the heads of the screws holding
the shoe to the deck after the photos were taken. Another very
important part of this to make it all work is that the side of the
wires coming down in the mast are coiled into a loop and zipped tied
together to keep them this way. This is essential so that
any water that runs down the wires inside the mast drips off them into
the shoe (to drain out the weep holes) instead of just following the
wires down the standpipe and into the cabin, bilge.
etc. I can now say that after a spring with some very nice
and heavy rainfall, I have not had any water leaking in this area since
making these changes.
