We reached a minor milestone by fitting the compression post, which supports the mast and passes the load through the deck to a plate on the cabin floor which passes the load directly to the keel via a welded tubular section which rests on a specially manufactured spacer. The cabin floor plate had been manufactured and powder coated months earlier.
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| Resting place of compression post |
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| Passage through deck into cabin |
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| Boat yard crane bringing compression post into position |
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| Post in position, Bruce doing his thing |
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| Water seal from plumbing supplier. |
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| Compression post in position and ready for the mast |
Bruce had done much work on the thru-deck opening, building it up for a tighter fit and saturating the wood with
Everdure epoxy primer. He also prepared small jarrah wedges to ensure that the compression post was in a firm fit and not more around. This represented a great improvement because there had been no wedges and the part of the wooden collar had allowed too much sway room, even though throughout the circumnavigation I had not noticed and movement in the mast.
On the day the boat yard crane was used to lower the post into position, with Bruce working above and me below.
Bruce had also procured a conical sealing boot from a plumbing supplier,
cut it to length, and fit it into the compression post before we lowered
it into the cabin. We think that this new boot will eliminate much of the water that had been entering the boat when sailing hard upwind.
He finished the job by putting sealant under both ends of the boot and clamping it.
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