Apparently there is a pretty consistent problem with Sabres of a certain vintage where the mast step doesn’t have a large enough drain, thus gets clogged easily, and saturates the structure and sole of a boat. I’m really surprised Sabre took so long to address this issue, but Vellamo certainly fell victim to it. It’s well known enough of a problem that they have a name for it, Sabre Rot.

Before

This is the floor as I bought it.

Here you can see the plys of the plywood delaminating. I don’t know if this is common, but Sabre had a layer of plywood, then a layer of fiberglass, then plywood with teak and holly veneer over it. Makes for a solid floor and maybe it was part of their “solution” for the floor getting wet?

This shows how rotten the wood actually was. It crumbled apart in my hand, and I could squeeze water out of it!

 This is with that section of floor removed and ready to put new plywood down. I’m not doing the whole floor at this time as this was done solely (haha… Get it?) to satisfy my insurance requirements before I navigate any waters with the boat. 

I don’t have a shot with the plywood on it, but you can imagine ugly plywood floor in this place. It’s temporary until I can figure out which product I want to use and redo all the floors in.