Mistral Superlight broken base attachment

Question
I'm an 80's windsurfer who bought a Mistral Superlight in really good shape to "get back into it" and I'm having a blast.  Today, my mast popped out of the mast track/base on a crash-- and while trying to get it re-attached in freezing cold water, I noticed that the opening to the base had cracked.  I don't know all of the technical jargon, but I know how to rig everything.  When I insert the mast into the base and rotate it to lock, it's now extremely loose.  If I pull hard enough, it pops out-- so it's essentially inoperable.  Any thoughts on where I can find the base that slides inside of the mast track?  Also, how do I get inside of the track to install the new part if I'm fortunate enough to find one? Any help would be great. Thanks.

Answer
Hey Jon,

Great to hear you are getting back into sailing. I've never stopped but bought an Equipe a while back and am back into longboarding on the lighter wind days.

I'm guessing you have a newer Superlight and from your description you have a movable mast track. The design shouldn't be much different than the one on my Equipe. I had to replace my track part too.

Go here - www.oceanairsports.com and search Mistral, Parts, page 3, second item from the bottom. I think this is what you need. If not, look through the list and see if you can find what you need.

If you have no luck there, the only other place I know of that has older Mistral parts is Big Winds in Hood River, OR. www.bigwinds.com Just find an email address and write to them. You may need to send a picture of your broken piece to see if they can match it up. You may try that with Ocean Air also if you don't see the part on their list.

As for removing/replacing the old part; If it is what I'm familiar with, there should be some phillips head screws in the bottom of the mast track (4 or 5). Remove these and the whole track will lift out of the board. Now the tricky part. The slider car is attached to a rope and the pedal locks & releases the rope to allow the slider car to move. There is a pulley in the front end of the track that has a pin going through the pulley and into the track. Turn the track over and use something to push the pin out of the track. It won't take much. Now, on the end with the pedal, there is a similar type pin system but it seems like there will be a piece that you have to turn. It will be round with two slots. Once you have this out then you should be able to push the pin out of the track and remove the pieces.

Be sure to look everything over closely before removing anything. Especially how the rope is routed and how the parts fit together. I wasn't paying real close attention and it took me a while to figure out how to put the new one back in. It is not a difficult thing to do, it just has a specific way of going back together to work properly. So watch closely how it comes apart and you should have no problem getting back together. I'm hoping that this is going to help you as I'm not quite sure if your parts match what I'm thinking they are. Hopefully Mistral has kept it generic over the years to make it more simple for us common folk. Best of luck getting the part you need and your repair.

Hope this will help.
Keep on sailing,
Windlover