That was me.
I think there may have been a construction cock up or the previous owners did something strange. When she arrived to us - we bought her in a lock down - the mast tabernacle was secured with rusty ferrous screws.
I contacted the broker who had assured us she was in excellent condition and queried the mast attachment.
After some muttering about not suppling us a dangerous boat we also ascertained the that where also too short and too narrow.
I dried the pad, had a good poke around and extracted some wood from the holes that had been used as a shim to get too small a screw to grip.
I decided that the surrounding wood was reasonably sound and changing the manufacturers spec screws and sealing would suffice.
I was concerned that the thing was screwed direct into the wooden pad which I considered somewhat inviting this problem. Alas the sailing teaching season was upon us so it’s been under close observation.
One screw was sitting proud the other day so I investigated and found it had no grip and brought up comprised wood when extracted.
All 4 holes are now cored and redrilled so no screw provides a seep channel to wood.
