mast step

[Bill]

I am looking at a 365 and the mast step is pretty well gone.  It looks like the steel that was around the mast is 85% not there.  I have read about the fix.  The question though, is the boat safe to sail without the support of step.  It looks to me like the mast sits inside of the step and not just on it, is that correct.  If so I can see the bottom of the mast and there is not much around it.  Hope this makes sense.  Thanks for the input.

Bill

[RayNWanda]

 That's a tough question to answer. It depends on how bad it is. Seems like there is a strip of steel flat bar around the front and another around the rear of the step. The top of the step is flat other than that. You can see the bottom of the mast on the sides. Quite a few masts have corrosion inside also, which is why the bottom 1-2 inches need to be cut off and a taller step built to make up for it.
Remember that a mast works in compression. The standing rigging transfers the side loads from the sails into a compression load, all of which is carried by the step. If the step collapses, or the bottom of the mast is paper thin and collapses, it ain't going to be pretty.
It would be worth it to have a rigger or surveyor look at it. It may need to be addressed now, or you may be able to sail the boat for a while. We sailed our first 365 most of one summer with a bad step. I had the surveyor look at the step before we bought the boat. His opinion was "Yeah, it's ugly, but you still have some time before you need to replace it. It's a common problem with these boats". I would have the boat surveyed. If you just want a quick opinion, a rigger or surveyor would probably look at it for an hour's labor.