Hi Ken,
I was astonished to read your post. I had not considered that the timber mast support post would be simply sat on a bed of epoxy mortar, with possibly the same treatment at the top where it meets the aluminium backing plate to the mast deck fitting. When you consider that the bulkhead is not fixed to the mast support, any shrinkage of the timber, failure of the epoxy mortar or simply flexing of the hull and deck could allow the mast prop to move out of position. It looks as if you have found another Bavaria design problem and a pretty serious one at that. I agree with you that the base needs to be fixed in some way to prevent it from moving in any direction. I also think that the top may need to be given similar treatment, as there is no certainty that it has been fixed to the aluminium backing plate.
I will try to find out if there is any fixity that is not visible by getting in touch with Clipper Marine, (you never know your luck) and i will contact my brother Alf to let him look at the best design solution to sort this out. Saloma is in Brittany at present so we will have a logistics, but this looks serious enough for us to want to carry out a modification SAP.
With your post being limited to the B34 section on the Forum it is likely that most Bavaria owners will not have followed this topic. It is probable that the timber mast supports on all Bavarias are fitted in the same way. It may be that you would want to post an article to warn other owners by using The general section or the Hints and tips.
Let me know what you want to do, as i have strong feelings about letting all Bavaria owners know about any serious faults which could result in safety issues.
regards,
