Striker driving through mast step?

It makes no sense, but it appears the striker post is coming up through the mast step on my cat. Once the mast in in place, it seems to push the striker back down, but I am seeing a lot of shavings in the pocket after a hard day on the water and the mast base has a definite flat spot on the bottom.

Is the striker made to move up and down, or do I need to consider taking everything apart to see what is failing?

Thanx

I am currently fixing the same problem on my H16. Your mast step casting has stripped out where the striker post threads to it and needs to be replaced. Check out the thread in the general sailing index about how to do this.

From what I hear it's super important to fix this, if the striker isn't tight the front crossbar could collapse under heavy load.

I just this morning finished repairing the mast base on my H16. It was super easy, just follow the directions that are in the Hobie Hotline article. The only caveat that I have is that when doing the drilling use a generous amount of cutting oil. It will save your drill bit and make the whole process much easier.

Now that the base is installed I can't believe how much tighter and more rigid the boat is.