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Andy Smith boats
I own a 2005 38’ (Andy Smith) Tiki which seems to have a lot of rot issues for such s young boat, this latest issue is the rear mast rotting from inside out. I’ve replaced hatches, half the sheeting on starboard hull, a few patches on port hull, parts of the cockpit, replaced two beams and heavily patched the others. At first I was thinking neglect from prior owners but as we were breaking into the beams and especially the mast, the wood quality seemed poor. The beams were a patchwork of different woods and while the Thai workers from the boat yard were cutting into my mast they were laughing and (as far as I could tell) saying “this is the wood we grow mushrooms on”. There turned out to be mushrooms growing 3/4 the way up the inside of the mast.
Just wondering if this is a thing with Andy Smith boats or I’m just getting lucky.
Beyond that I’ve scrapped the mast and looking for suggestions on running a wire up the middle again for the mast light or go with some other way of lighting myself. I believe while I think the wood was shit, I think running the wire in the top added to the problem...and the fact that there was no drain hole at the base of the mast. At least I hope this is the case because I want to believe in my formast which I’m sure is made of the same wood.
Formast already shot through the deck and pierced the port bow (previous owner)
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Permalink Reply by Björn on
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Looks familiar, I threw my masts away and replaced them with aluminium. All three beams on my Tiki 38 had bad rott issues, mostly due to poor gluing and not properly sealing the wood and any type of holes which required epoxy bushings.
All the basics from the Gougeons book seem to have been ignored!
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Permalink Reply by Maxim Jurgens on
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Rob: Are you in Thailand ? ( you mention Thai workers) If you want alu masts I can advise where to get your alu from and how we did our masts,incl conduits fro wires etc . I my opinion the best wood for masts is called aluminium .
cheers
Maxim Jurgens
Siam Sailing, Phuket
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Yes, the boat is in Ao Chalong and that’s the new mast being made there. I would be interested in any good connections on Phuket, I have a lot to do.
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Judging by your pics your'e in guenther's yard . Highly recommended . Your next mast(s) will not have rot issues .
I prefer alu masts because making a good one myself is within the reach of my skills whilst a good wooden one is not .
If I was you I'd lift the foremast too for close inspection . It's unlikely that when the main mast was of bad construction whilst the fore mast would not be similar . Guenther will normally glass in a PVC conduit for your masthead light, VHF aerial etc . He does put drain holes in as well ...
Known weak point on perhaps not-so- well constructed T 38's is the longitudial beam on which the foremast sits . Failures have been recorded and if it happens it's a major hassle. If i was you i'd ask Guenther to have a look at you'r's . if only for peace of mind.
The ones he makes on his boats are a lot beefier that what was suggested by JWD at the time .
If you need to know about suppliers , workshops etc feel free to ask . I live and charter in Phuket for 20 + years so I reckon I know most of them . siamsailing at geemail dot com or tel 086 283 5536
cheers
Maxim Jurgens
Siam Sailing, Phuket
Rob Daigle said:
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Yep, that’s Gunther’s shop, He seems to really know what he is doing. Turns out the common foremast beam failure already happend to a previous owner and was fixed by Gunther as well. You probably know my boat, Pai Nai aka pumpkin.
Also, you played a role in this crazy dream of mine, some friends and I rented a tiki from you in 99-2000?. We were stopped by rough seas and ended up spending most of the time on Racha but I fell in love with the Wharram.
I’ll be back this winter, hopefully this time I’ll be buying a one way ticket.
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