Busted Mast - Help!

Yesterday, after a great sail, my friend was bringing down the mast. I heard a loud pop and then cringed as I saw that he was bringing the mast down pointed in the wrong direction (i.e., the warning arrows were not aligned). The socket portion of the ball and socket is broken and it is now, of course, impossible to use the mast.

How do I fix this? Is it as easy as getting the new component for the bottom and if so, how do you get the old one out and the new one in?

Please help!

The mast base is replaceable. You'll need some patience and a rivet gun. The part numbers are:

Mast base: 37641001 - $60.85
Rivets: 8010131 (probably) - $0.65 each. You'll need four.

Brian C

I sure wish Hobie would get rid of the sideways mast business. The old H16 system was easier to rig a system to raise the mast solo with a winch.

I've tried that with the Mast Stepper III and ended up breaking the mast base. I'm back to raising the mast by hand. I can do that, but my wife can't, and once when I broke a toe, we almost got stuck at the boat ramp not being able to lower the mast!