Help please - fitting more rope clutches on cabin top.

From memory each clutch will have it's own pair of fixing holes so you should be able to fit a 4 bank utilising the original holes for a 3 hole unit. It will have to be the same make of clutch though - but wether this arrangement would be OK for strength you would ahve to ask Rutgerson!
 
Not on a Bavaria, but I changed the 3-bank clutches to 5-bank on our boat together with the deck organisers. I had to remove all the light fittings and take out all the headlinings in the main cabin. About par for the course I think ... ... ...

Ours were fitted with screws but you may find yours, if they're plastic, are "sprung" into place.
 
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Bavaria use aluminium plates bonded into the deck moulding and the clutches are screwed down to them. This avoids having holes right through the deck with the attendant sealing problems - but does make it difficult to add fittings. There may be a hole in the plate for a 4 clutch block but don't know for sure. Mine has 3 clutch banks either side, but I have been on an earlier boat (1999) that had a 4 bank.
 
The Rutgerson RC 750 clutches I have just removed from my boat were fixed with 6 M6 countersunk bolts for each triple clutch through the coachroof, with large washers and locking nuts beneath.
My headlining was however easy to remove fo good access. They will probably be stuck also with some mastic around the holes. Hopefully Sikaflex was not used.
 
Habebty said:
The Rutgerson RC 750 clutches I have just removed from my boat were fixed with 6 M6 countersunk bolts for each triple clutch through the coachroof, with large washers and locking nuts beneath.
My headlining was however easy to remove fo good access. They will probably be stuck also with some mastic around the holes. Hopefully Sikaflex was not used.
Click to expand...

....however, your boat is not a Bavaria!
 
There are a couple of answers to your problem.

Firstly you can live in hope that Bavaria made a big enough plate for you to drill and tap it for the screws for the larger organiser. This would be the 'preferred' option perhaps. Its quick and simple and you would have a strong fitting without too much hassle. Of course it would assume that the old screws come out easily (impact driver?) and that you clean off the mastic and rebed the new organiser with a suitable mastic. (personally I have no problem with using Sikaflex as although it sticks very well, I have always managed to lever fittings off which have been stuck down with the stuff with a little ingenuity etc) This first option also assumes that some of the screw holes of the new fitting will match up with the holes of the old fitting.

Your problems potentially start if the screw holes of the new fitting don't match up, and you have to start making new holes. If they are far enough away from the old holes, and there's enough aluminium plate in the deck structure, you might be able to just seal up the old holes and start again, but I am not holding my breath for that option. The chances are that some of the holes will 'just' be in the wrong place and now you will have to gain access to the underneath of the deck to add penny washers and nuts.

This means that the likely second option is to remove the headlining, or if that is impossible, to make an access hole big enough to work through and then devise some trim to cover the hole. You could screw or velcro small panels over the holes you have made to gain access, and it would still look neat and tidy. Try and match other bits of trim in the boat. Alternatively varnished wooden panels screwed over the access holes you cut (varnished to match the interior finish of the fit out wood of the interior) wouldn't look out of place. You don't need a huge hole to get your hand through with a spanner to put penny washers and nuts on the underside of the fitting.

Use a decent hole saw to make the access holes.

Good luck.
 
All the above from John Morris seems perfect sense to me.

You should be able to fit new fittings, one of the chief reasons I sold my Carter 30 was because of the glassed in, inaccessible gear.

Thinking now, a little surgery if required, then through bolting the new kit ( I wouldn't be happy with screwed down stuff personally, I've seen how even internal alloy plates deteriorate in a salt air environment ) would do the job.

I had to investigate deck fittings for a project a while ago; sadly it seems ball bearing organisers are no longer available, the next best being Spinlock which are at least flexible to suit cambered decks, I have Spinlock XAS clutches which I can recommend.
 
On my Bavaria now. The clutches are over the aft cabin which has a moulded liner, so impossible to tell if the plate is big enough. It may be simpler just to add a single alongside and drill straight through to give you the location. If you use say a 4mm drill you will be able to see if there is aluminium then tap an M6 hole. Otherwise go through the headlining and that will give you a centre for an access hole as johnmorris suggests.
 
john_morris_uk said:
Alternatively varnished wooden panels screwed over the access holes you cut (varnished to match the interior finish of the fit out wood of the interior) wouldn't look out of place. You don't need a huge hole to get your hand through with a spanner to put penny washers and nuts on the underside of the fitting.
Click to expand...

I'd rather through-bolt with decent washers. My boat has a winch and clutches on the coachroof, through-bolted with simple wooden panels covering the access holes.

aa1.jpg
 
Thanks for the ideas - I'm on purchase attempt no. 2 now after the disaster of number one Album - Grounding Damage. Same boat type, hopefully without the same problems.

I want the extra organisers to put the continuous reefing line on the main and was wondering how hard the job was going to be.

The headlining is moulded plastic so I thought of cutting out a panel carefully with a router and a template, then re-fitting the cut out panel with an 'H' section rubber seal - the black seal might look a bit naff though.

PVBs solution looks very neat and professional.
 
Baggywrinkle said:
Thanks for the ideas - I'm on purchase attempt no. 2 now after the disaster of number one Album - Grounding Damage. Same boat type, hopefully without the same problems.

I want the extra organisers to put the continuous reefing line on the main and was wondering how hard the job was going to be.

The headlining is moulded plastic so I thought of cutting out a panel carefully with a router and a template, then re-fitting the cut out panel with an 'H' section rubber seal - the black seal might look a bit naff though.

PVBs solution looks very neat and professional.
Click to expand...
I only have 3 on my 37. On starboard side, the inner two are used for the continuous furling line and the outer one for either the genoa halyard or the topping lift. As I find you rarely need to adjust either, one or both can be left at the mast - although the tails are long enough to come back. On the other side there are also 3, main outhaul, sheet and kicking strap.

Extras might be useful if you have a spinnaker, and I think came as standard if you had factory fitted spinnaker gear. So I think the moulded in plate will extend inboard of the existing clutches (there is no room outboard if the deck moulding is the same as mine). If i was through bolting I would make round access holes big enough to get the penny washers and a socket through, then cover them with a piece of hardwood about 100*50 would cover both holes.

BTW the instructions for doing the continuous line splice are somewhere on the Selden site - I have a rigger do mine, took about 15 minutes.
 
on our 2004 bav I have added an additional spinlock clutch to each side of the cabin top. The first one I removed the headlining, lots of screws and velco hold the headling in, drilled through and discovered the aluminim plate and that none of the other clutches had nuts on the bolts. Very hard to get the nuts on since they are hidden behind a moulding. The next clutch I drilled a smaller hole and tapped it. much easier. there's quite a bit of fiberglass either side of the alu plate which is hard on the tap. much harder than the alu.
 
Baggywrinkle said:
I want the extra organisers to put the continuous reefing line on the main and was wondering how hard the job was going to be.



PVBs solution looks very neat and professional.
Click to expand...

If you are fitting in mast furling main (assume thats what continuous reefing line is for) why do you need more than 3 cluches per side? Port side: out haul and continuous reefing line. Stb side: vang; main sheet and spinnaker halyard. The head sail and main sail halyards cluch at mast and are only used twice per season so can be coiled and put to side of sprayhood?
 
Thanks again .... I need to have a think about this.

I guess with 6 clutches I could do ....

Continuous reefing (x2)
Main outhaul
Topping lift
Kicker
Main sheet

I think the previous owners sacrificed the continuous reefing for 2 extra halyards - one exits at the top of the mast, the second 3/4 of the way down - both forward?? The main and genoa halyards are made off at the mast.

We're having the survey done on Thursday and I already know not to count my chickens but I may finally be the owner of a shiny old boat this weekend. :D
 
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