On my boat, there is a large rectangular two piece salad bowl looking thing around the mast. It is stainless, and has nice holes all around the edge so that you can hook on blocks. What I expected to find when I removed this was that it clamped over the molded in mast collar. What I found instead is that the forward half (expecting same from aft half) was no longer joined to the deck via the white deck goo, that there is no molded in collar, that the deck under this is flat as a pancakaeallowing leaks wherever the seal broke, and that the whole stainless base piece fit around a "floating" coller, which is still in the beck half of this whole thing. I have now found at least half of my heavy leak around the mast.
The question I have is this. Did this boat at one time have a raised, molded in mast collar, that might have prevented water from running in around the mast? I am curious as to whether the previous owner ground it off to put this block plate in instead.
I will have to wait until I get home tonight to push the image up on the web so that you can see the contraption I am talkng about.
Phantom has an aluminum ring bolted onto the deck that has a raised lip to which the mast boot is tied. The space between the ring and the mast is filled with a rubber or plastic insert and silicone sealer.
Ours is like Phantom's.
Ditto
Thanks for the responses all. Sorry, I forgot to put the photo up there, and now I am back at work.
Has anyone else had big issues with leaks under the ring? Are there any stressors on yours like there are on mine (all of the turning blocks for halyards are on it, using those edge holes....). I am wondering if there is just too much upward force, or if this was a rare event, possibly amplified by our knockdown on the Harvest Moon Regatta.