hardwood chocks please advise.

[sakura26]

Hello and thanks for reading.
If I want to mount my stainless steel cleats on hardwood chocks and through the deck through stainless steel backing plates.
What would be the best treatment to give the hardwood ?
My inexperienced thoughts are along the lines of epoxy and varnish.
Thanks for any advice you can offer.

 

[Norman_E]

There are lots of different "hardwoods", some of which are not even very hard, and quite unsuitable. Balsa wood is technically a "hardwood". There are very few woods that you would want in an exposed position on deck. I have seen oak used to mount winches, but I would not choose it. The best choices are teak and iroko, neither of which actually need any surface treatment. A lot of plantation grown teak now sold is a bit soft compared to old growth teak used in years gone by. My choice for your purpose would be iroko, left untreated.

 

[Poignard]

If your deck is painted, I would suggest epoxy coating (don't forget the inside of any holes you drill) and then painting with deck paint.

This is what I did with the large chock I mounted my windlass on. I have quite enough varnishing to do without adding more!

Even better, make the entire chock of epoxy. The WEST epoxy manual tells you how to do it. It's very easy.

 

[Plum]

I too would use iroko left uncoated.

Www.solocoastalsailing.co.uk

 

[sakura26]

thank you for replying. I believe the block of wood I have is teak, it is rock hard, and a deep rich red-brown colour.
I will explore the option of making the entire chock of epoxy, which presumably means constructing a mould for it.

my boat is a contessa 26, I understand the decks on these yachts are solid fibreglass and not cored.

 

[Poignard]

(...)
I will explore the option of making the entire chock of epoxy, which presumably means constructing a mould for it.

No need, it's much easier than that. Please refer to "Casting an epoxy base" in:
http://www.westsystem.com/instruction-2/epoxy-basics/bonding-fasteners-hardware/

my boat is a contessa 26, I understand the decks on these yachts are solid fibreglass and not cored.

A nice boat. I don't know about the deck construction on a Contessa 26 but if it is cored, the WEST manual will tell you how to deal with it.

 

[Flica]

thank you for replying. I believe the block of wood I have is teak, it is rock hard, and a deep rich red-brown colour.
I will explore the option of making the entire chock of epoxy, which presumably means constructing a mould for it.

my boat is a contessa 26, I understand the decks on these yachts are solid fibreglass and not cored.

More probably iroko, teak is not particularly dark and has lighter flakes in it. Take it along to a knowledgeable timber yard.
In fact, teak is not very good as backing to cleats - it's too hard and brittle.
Rather than use ss backing plates, good external ply is superior, chamfer the edges, make them up to x5 the area of the cleats. From memory the Contessa 26 used no end-grain balsa in the deck.

 

[sakura26]

thanks again all for your time and wisdom,
My intention now, is to put at least 2 coats of epoxy on and then paint, as Parsifal has his windlass mounted in post #3.
having looked at the link to West's, I would not be confident in my ability to make a chock 3inches high with epoxy.
For the backing plates, I know that internally I don't have the space to go 5x cleat size with ply, probably 2x would be the most, and will thus have to go with the SS.
I will also investigate further exactly which hardwood it is I have.

 

[Flica]

thanks again all for your time and wisdom,
My intention now, is to put at least 2 coats of epoxy on and then paint, as Parsifal has his windlass mounted in post #3.
having looked at the link to West's, I would not be confident in my ability to make a chock 3inches high with epoxy.
For the backing plates, I know that internally I don't have the space to go 5x cleat size with ply, probably 2x would be the most, and will thus have to go with the SS.
I will also investigate further exactly which hardwood it is I have.

If that short of space, used penny washers, considerably better than a thin SS backing plate.

 

[sakura26]

If you're willing Flica, (or anyone else)
can you please let me know what are the disadvantages of SS backing plates,
the ones I have (not yet fitted) are made from 6mm plate, they are only slightly larger than the chocks I am in the process of epoxying at the moment.
I have plenty of marine ply and penny washers,
what is it that makes these more suitable than the SS plates ?
thanks in advance, it all seems counter-intuitive to me.

 

[ghostlymoron]

I prefer marine ply for backing pieces. The slight give enables it to conform to slight irregularities whereas stainless is hard and will give point loads on any high spots. Marine ply won't last forever of course.

 

[sakura26]

thank you ghostly.
I wouldn't pretend to know the physics of it all, I imagine its all about transferring forces.
It seems logical that the more of the backing plate that is tight against the underneath of the deck, the more effectively it would work.
There would also be some slight weight saving.
And cost, (if I hadn't already had the backing plates made).
Reminder to self, get advice before spending the dough next time.

 

[doug748]

Here is a link to a drawing of the 32 deck join. It may well be similar on your 26:

http://www.co32.org/sites/default/files/CO32HullDeckJoint.pdf

And a snap of my midship cleat:

View attachment 66643

The wood is teak, and I used Woodskin to match the toerail, not that I think it matters a great deal. I have washers underneath but I thought I had made stainless plates till I checked last month when someone asked me about it.
Plates look nice, a neat a Rolls Royce job, but the joint is almost 20mm thick at that point so not much will pull it through the deck.

There is no core in either boat something tells me there may be ply bonded to the underside of the foredeck on the 26, it should be easy to see.....or I may have imagined this detail !

 

[reeac]

Bit of thread drift but I've just made some teak mounts for fixing two wrought iron gates in . a brick gateway. The teak came from a 1930s draining board that I removed from our previous house in 1977. Wonderful quality timber.

 

[Flica]

If you're willing Flica, (or anyone else)
can you please let me know what are the disadvantages of SS backing plates,
the ones I have (not yet fitted) are made from 6mm plate, they are only slightly larger than the chocks I am in the process of epoxying at the moment.
I have plenty of marine ply and penny washers,
what is it that makes these more suitable than the SS plates ?
thanks in advance, it all seems counter-intuitive to me.

Unless the stainless steel is quite thick it deforms under the nuts. Penny washers, being quite thick tend to be more effective.

 

[Topcat47]

If you have the plates, Mix up some epoxy putty to cover it, wind the bolts up from the bottom to squeeze the putty out at the edges filling irregularities, then when the putty has set hard, tighten the bolts further. All the backing pads I use on Snark are Marine ply with penny washers. Only the foredeck cleat has had the epoxy putty treatment as I use it when anchoring.

 

[Tranona]

Unless the stainless steel is quite thick it deforms under the nuts. Penny washers, being quite thick tend to be more effective.

See post#10. They are 6mm thick. Even Popeye after a tin of spinach would have trouble distorting them!

 

[sakura26]

Doug748, your picture is very helpful,
I have exactly the same style of cleat to put on midships, the same two bolts through each leg, and the need to raise the cleat to the height of the toerail.
Before seeing your picture, I was going to use one larger chunk of wood. I have epoxied pieces already.
I presume you chose to make 2 separate chocks.
Am I right to think there is no great advantage/ disadvantage either way, one large chock or two smaller ones ?

 

[sakura26]

Topcat47,
thank you for this suggestion, i'm hoping at the moment that the interior will be flat enough not to have to do this,
but I will certainly follow this if necessary.

 

[doug748]

Doug748, your picture is very helpful,
I have exactly the same style of cleat to put on midships, the same two bolts through each leg, and the need to raise the cleat to the height of the toerail.
Before seeing your picture, I was going to use one larger chunk of wood. I have epoxied pieces already.
I presume you chose to make 2 separate chocks.
Am I right to think there is no great advantage/ disadvantage either way, one large chock or two smaller ones ?

I thought the deck might drain better and that it looked a bit more elegant. However, the main reason was that I had some suitable strips of teak that I could laminate into one length and cut into four pieces, so it saved on timber.

If I was you I would carry on, it's not going to be a problem. If I had some handy blocks available I would have probably done the same.