When my mast rotates in waves it makes a loud squeaking sound. I have tried marine grease, which worked for a week and WD-40, which worked for an hour. I was wondering whether replacing the half ball that the mast rotates on might help. I do have some mast rake and have suspected that it might be the cause, but the ball is at least a few years old and could be original 1988. Any thoughts?

Matt

I've never replaced the ball on my P-18. It's got to be ancient. If you have a huge amount of mast rake, it could be creating an angle that is so steep it's setting up the rubbing. Are your shrouds bone tight?

How about a bit of silicone on the mast base itself, the hollow where the ball ultimately contacts. Maybe some Sail Lube.

Sheldon
P-18

I have a fair amount of mast rake. I have been optimizing it over the past two years. My shrouds are pretty tight. I could probably move them one or two holes down, so are not the tightest they could possibly be, but pretty tight. I have not tried lubing under the ball. I didn’t think it rotated, but it very well might. Thank you for your suggestion.

Matt

I'm not all that familiar with the ball setup on the P18 - but if it's threaded like the Nacra mast base system, chances are the ball is turning on the threads of the mast post. Be sure that your ball is very tight on the post. Secondly, you can seat the ball in the base of your mast. With the mast down, apply mold release to a mast ball (hair spray might work but you need to test it first), mix up some Marine Tex, shape a thick round waffer, put it in the mast base, put in the mast ball firmly, and tape in place. After an hour, remove the ball and you should have a perfectly fit socket in the base of the mast. You might also want to invest in a new mast ball before you do this so you get a good shape.

I had the same problem on my I-17. On the advice of my dealer, Key Sailing, I stuffed a Hobie 16 Teflon mast bearing, a quarter-sized Teflon disk that costs a couple of bucks, into my mast base before stepping my mast. The mast has not squeaked since.

Thanks for the suggestions. I will give them each a try in order of difficulty.

Matt