Are our chainplates going to kill us?

[Boathook]

Toerail is through-bolted.

The U-bolt plates were removed by me six years ago, checked and re-bedded. One thread on one of them was slightly 'necked' and there was a bit of movement. After re-bedding and new nuts there has been no movement.

I had new ones made at the time, but rejected them because the threads were welded onto the plate separately (I noticed because the threads underneath the plate were slightly offset from the arms of the loop above the plate. A friend who was an enginerr opined that he would not yrust these, so I replaced the originals). I still have them on board somewhere.

Agree the embedded part of the chainplates is very unlikely to pull out, even if rusted. The not very thick exposed right-angle at the top is the worrying bit there, but I guess as long as there is a reasonable amount of metal between the edge and the thread hole it should be OK.

I might get away with just cutting this out and through-bolting a substantial right angle piece to a smaller external plate. (And replacing the deck loops/plates of course)

Going to cost over €500 just for liftout, mast off mast on lift in, so wondering if it can be done one at a time in the water. Will hopefully speak to the fibreglass guy and the stainless guy today.

- W

There is no reason why it couldn't be done one at a time whilst afloat.. You would need to be in a marina to make life easy. With all the rigging slackened off as a chain plate is removed a halyard could be used to support the mast instead, tied to a 'strong point'. You could save money by ensuring access and making sure that all the threads are clean, etc.

 

[Tamar]

Would it be possible to drill a few holes in the encapsulation and see if any water comes out? If not all good I guess

 

[rogerthebodger]

I plan to do my chainplates without removing the mast by doing one chain plate at a time and using a halyard to support the mast while the chainplate is removed and relaced

 

[webcraft]

Have had a closer look and only the two aft chainplates are suffering appreciable/noticeable corrosion to the mild steel. I did, as I say, get two new U-bolt deck fittings made up 6 years ago, but didn't like the look of them (see pic) so put the old ones back.



So maybe I will just get 6 new U-bolt plates made and replace them. Will be cheaper, easier and probably sufficient. Stainless guy is visiting this afternoon, so will ask him.



- W

 

[rogerthebodger]

Why did you not like the look of the U bolts as shown.

The only issue I can see is the 2 of the nuts need to on top of the plate and the U bolt needs to be bend over to be inline with the rigging to have a better pull line

 

[greeny]

Why did you not like the look of the U bolts as shown.

The only issue I can see is the 2 of the nuts need to on top of the plate and the U bolt needs to be bend over to be inline with the rigging to have a better pull line

Post 19 para 3 maybe answers that.

 

[webcraft]

Update . . . The good news is that the main shroud chainplates seem to be OK, just as well as they are behind the main bulkhead with just the bolts accessible. So for them, just removing the deckplate to check or replace it.

For the lowers, clean and remove all rust then through-bolt from new external plates to new L-shaped backing plates. Should be bombproof.

Have asked for a liftout as it is a good chance to get the rigging replaced as well. On the waiting list for the yard.

Mucho dineiro, but this is the last major upgrade the old girl needs.

Fitting the new self-tailing winches tomorrow.

- W

- W