Got to raise a mast step

[MikeR]

Here's the story:

Pearson 10M 33', 12,500lbs
Alum spar 5"x9" oval
Fabricated steel mast step
Sits in bilge water, aluminum corrodes.
Plan is to build a 'platform' for the mast step approx 2.25" high. Cut that much off the bottom of the spar.

How, what shall I build the platform from?

All ideas welcome.

Cheers,

MikeR

By the way. a belated thank you to Brion for his support of the Rocking the Boat-Little Neck Bay Regatta. Thanks to folk like him, we raised $6,000 for this worthwhile organization. Check out www.rockingtheboat.org

MR

[Matthew Sebring]

We've built the exact same sort of thing for the exact same reason. Our platforms were built from a welded honeycomb of (if I am remembering correctly) 3/8" aluminum and were hellaciously strong.

[jimgolding]

I just went through the same process. I cut 2 inches off the end of the mast and sent it with the mast step to a spar shop. They built up the step to account for the removed portion of mast. They used aluminum and painted it with Awlgrip. I don't know how thick the vertical pieces were because they were capped with a 3/8" thick aluminum plate. It seems very solid.