Mizzen masthead inspection

[lsheaf]

Hey James,

I completed my Round trip to/from St. John to St. Croix a few weeks ago. I left Cruz Bay at midnight and was about 4 miles off of St. Croix by sunrise. When I woke from my last nap, I noticed the triatic stay was holding up the Mizzen by one strand of wire. It broke shortly after arriving in Christiansted.

The Mizzen mast has been removed and I’ve started stripping any severely corroded hardware.
I’m slightly concerned about the condition of The Mizzen masthead and wanted your opinion. Is this something you’d cross the pacific with?

https://imgur.com/gallery/1SKi35g


I’ve spoken with you about whether it’s worth fixing (at this point it seems replacing almost everything) my current boat or looking for something different.
Something different will most likely have its own set of problems and I would basically be starting from scratch, right? If one plans on crossing oceans, How important is it to know the “ins and outs” of every single system on the vessel, to the point of replacing/rebuilding pretty much everything? Or do you inspect something as best as possible and hope for the best? Or are there no clear cut answers to these kinds of things? Maybe just a combination of the above.

I just turned 24 a few months ago and have been rebuilding Stardust for about 2 years now. At this point In time (due to my limited experiences), I’m not sure when I should stop and just go sailing. Or continue invest (not a monetary return) money into the boat to make it as seaworthy as possible.

Maybe I’m the only one who can really answer my own questions about seaworthiness. After all, I’m the one who knows my boat the best, no one else.

Logan

[atomvoyager]

Logan

The safest option might be to remove the masthead bracket, polish and inspect it and if any sign of cracks or weakness from parts of it being undersized, weld some metal plates to strengthen it where needed or weld up a new fitting entirely. But the fasteners into the aluminum are probably seized and all that work is impractical and probably not needed. I would inspect the visible stainless for any sigs of cracks and if none, assume it is fine.

In your situation I think your intuition is correct that at some point soon you need to stop preparing and get going. Of course it's nice to have a perfectly fitted out boat with all components as reliable as possible and know how to do every job ahead of time that might come up. But that would take years and you'd likely never get away. Best to just confirm that all the main issues (rig, rudder, underwater thru-hulls, sails, ground tackle, engine, abandon ship plan, and so on) are sound and you have a plan to deal with common issues that will inevitably come up and then get on with your sailing trip. That's how I started out even on a less sound boat than yours. There is always risk but I wouldn't let unreasonable fears get you sidetracked too long. Maybe others here have some advice to add?

[lsheaf]

I cut off about an inch and a half right off the top of the mast and removed the inside aluminum “plug”. It appears to be in decent condition. I may just redrill/retap the plug and fabricate a new stainless bracket.

Here are pictures of what I have.

https://imgur.com/a/zrk5FWS

Hopefully when I get the Mizzen mast back together I can get back to sailing, I think now is a good time to deal with this though.