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My Top Hat has a steel mast step (apparently not galvanised) and the mast is aluminium (as per usual). The mast step has on-going rusting problems, which I struggle with, with my bottle of rust fixer and metallic primers and paints, etc. A friend recently suggested that it could be corrosion (electrolysis?) between the two metals.

I'm interested to know what the mast steps of other Top Hats are made of?

We're preparing to slip her in coming weeks for anti-fouling and could do a mast and spar renovation while replacing the mast step - it would be good to know how others manage this.

Kind regards
Murray

Murray,
I have an aluminium mast girder and it has no corrosion issues.
It was welded up just like a normal steel girder.

Remember if you get one made it is sitting on a slope forward and aft as well as being slightly rounded port to starboard.

If you can get an al one made it may be best to drop the mast sooner so you can get it made.

Thanks very much Phillip! I really like your arrangement for mast step cables!

Best wishes, Murray

Murray Raff wrote:Thanks very much Phillip! I really like your arrangement for mast step cables!

Best wishes, Murray

I will be out at Seaka on Thursday, so I'll get some close up photos for you.

I see that you are up at Laurieton, which is not all that far from us. Could you tell me where you had the mast step fabricated? Do you know where one could get hold of a plan?

Best wishes, Murray

PS Your teak hand rails alone say "This man looks after his yacht!!!" I tried to keep up with teak oil but have decided I have to varnish them.

Hi again Phillip

Now that I know, thanks to you, that the mast step on a Top Hat is called the mast girder I've found a lot of discussion of the problem of rust/corrosion on this blog site by keyword searching (in most of which you have been an active participant!). It seems that there is only a fragment of a plan for construction of the girder available and that is for the timber Top Hat, not for the later fibreglass Marks of Top Hat. However, it seems that many Top Hatters have been successful taking their old steel girders to a local fabricator for them to be copied. Marine grade aluminium seems to be the material of choice, as you recommended. Most Top Hatters seem to have gone for 8 mm girder but one Top Hatter used 6 mm, possibly through initial mistake but with great success - very tempting to follow that! One Top Hatter gave the contact details for a fabricator just near our boat, in Ulladulla. So that's a lot of information and I feel I'm well on my way! Thanks very much again.

Kind regards
Murray Raff

photos coming tomorrow Murray.

The Al is 8mm stock.

That's excellent, thanks very much Phillip! You seem to have the girder on a sheet of material (rubber?) which was recommended in one of the many blog contributions that I have read - perhaps one of yours. Also, I take it that you have used stainless steel bolts to hold it down - how have you isolated them from the aluminium?

Many thanks again, and kind regards, Murray

Murray Raff wrote:That's excellent, thanks very much Phillip! You seem to have the girder on a sheet of material (rubber?) which was recommended in one of the many blog contributions that I have read - perhaps one of yours. Also, I take it that you have used stainless steel bolts to hold it down - how have you isolated them from the aluminium?

Many thanks again, and kind regards, Murray

No that's silaflex and thanks to your requests I found I have to replace it, 7 years old now. Its there to keep water out from under girder and the holding bolts