Most Shields I've seen have pretty bad partner box systems. Originally the partners were just an oval hole in the deck, sometimes with glass protecting the core, and sometimes not. The mast is stepped, and then various wedges and shims are used to hold it in place. Over time, the shimming and wedging makes the hole irregular, larger, and broken. I recall (fondly) sailing on #90, which had the most comically oversized partner hole ever. We would jam wood shims, doorstops and god knows what else in there to get the mast stabilzied, and then wrap the whole mess in duct tape. It was ugly, but that boat went pretty quick!
On 88, it's not that bad, but the partners need repair, as the port side has curiously lifted up from the deck, and then been repaired with an unknown putty. Rather than mess around with fixing the oval partner, I'm going to replace with a raised rectangular box style of partners. 150 had this and it works great. You make up HDPE shims that fit the box and the mast, and get 0 movement when installed. To make this out of glass and fair it into the deck takes a lot of time, and if you want it done right, vacuum bagging skills. Instead, I've come up with a simpler bolt on (well, glue on) solution by making a flanged box out of G10 material (epoxy glass), which can be installed into a rectangular cutout in the deck.
I've got our box more or less finished (as well as one for 126), and am going to try installing it next week.
Make Partner Box 4hrs
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