Mast deck plate / collar rebedding

[PourDecisions]

I've been dealing with water coming in around the mast and I'm at the point where I'm confident that the water is coming in under the deck plate. I'm planning on having the mast pulled so I can replace the boot and the wedge and planning on rebedding the plate. Does anyone have any expirence / commentary on this process?

[Dan Corcoran]

You are convinced because ???

When I had ** maybe ** a similiar leak, with water coming down the sides of the mast from inside my 109 when it rained, I did the following, each fixed a different source of leak down the mast
-- Each of the wires that come out of the mast into the ceiling I individually push each at least 2 inches back into the mast, so that any water running down the wires drips instead to the bottom of the mast instead of into the ceiling
-- I ran a 2 1/2" self adhearing water proof tape around the bottom of the mast, evenly covering the top of the boot to the mast above it. I believe I purchased it from Defender.

Since I did these two things, and maybe also covered a small hole or two at the top of the mast (maybe that was unnecessary), I have had complete success.

At the time I was chasing this down I was was also thinking replacing the wedge, but was discouraged when I saw how crazy expensive that is.

[Vento Solare]

The greatest source of water I found was the aft side mast groove that extends through the deck, Pull the mast boot and get some sealant that flows with a thin tip inserted in the groove and fill that groove well into the hole where the mast goes through the deck. Extend bead so it is filled above the mast boot and let it cure before putting the mast boot back in place. If that doesn't solve it, put a bead around the mast plate and let it cure. Get a 2nd person to spray a hose with a solid stream and go below to look for leaks.

On Dan's point I found water coming through the hole and sheath for the steaming light cable. Sealing the hole where that cable passed into the mast by the steaming light fixed that issue.

[PourDecisions]

I went through all the above with limited success. So I had the Mast pulled earlier this week.
On the mast itself once I cut away the crispy rubber boot I found many years of silicon where previous people have attempted to stop the leak. The wedge was also very very hard, I have a new boot and wedge
I went ahead and removed the plate. It wasn't very troublesome and I'm glad I did it. I remove the headliner on the port side and was able to loosen the headliner on the starboard side to get a wrench in there. To fully remove the headliner on the starboard side I would need to remove the grab rail bar. The six 5/16 Phillips head screws came out okay however the bearing surface underneath is curved so all of them were a little bent. The large slot head screw for the deck hold down turnbuckle was difficult to remove because of all the sealant squeezed around it.. I used a small pry bar, a block of wood, and automotive trim wedges but it actually popped off pretty quickly with little force other than around the aforementioned large slotted screw. The sealant under there was very dry and did not provide a good seal against the aluminum.
On tap for this weekend will be scraping and cleaning and then reassembling everything with new hardware.
While the mast is down, I'll seal all the holes on the mast.