Rebedding deck gear on an Arpege

[RobbieH]

Following a three day bash to windward on the way to Norway which revealed "a few drips" I am planning to rebed all the deck gear on my Arpege and perhaps do a repaint.

The Arpege has an inner liner so I'm interested in hearing from anyone with experience of this. Are the bolts for genoa tracks, etc tapped into a steel plate bonded into the GRP? Or were they assembled with nuts which will fall off the backside of the deck moulding leaving me with a series of holes in the deck and no way of reattaching the tracks. I know it sounds stupid but I'd rather know _before_ I strip the deck.

Same question for the teak rubbing strip - does anyone know how this is bolted on?

 

[RobbieH]

Arpege genoa track fastenings

Replying to my own post just in case anyone is ever searching for this info.

The track is bedded onto a raised moulded strip in/on the deck. I managed to get all the machine screws out clean (and there are a lot of them) except one. It stuck and whatever was in the deck was turning. Drilled the head of the machine screw to remove the track leaving a stump of screw thread. Dremeling down around the stump about 1cm into solid fibreglass then hit metal. Dremeled in expanding circles until it came free. "It" is a 6mm nut and washer.

I had envisaged some kind of metal strip with holes tapped in it laid into the deck but the track is held down by (lots of) 6mm nuts embedded in the GRP moulding. At least it wasn't nuts and washers hidden behind an inner liner.

I suppose it has held up for nearly 40 years so is strong enough for the application. I will epoxy in a new nut and washer to repair the damage. Probably verify all the threads on original nuts are working correctly (ease gently with a bolt with slots cut across the threads - like a tap) before I splodge sealant on the track and attempt to refit it. After painting deck, of course.

If anyone found this post because they are doing similar works on an Arpege I would recommend a splodge of penetrating oil on each screw and leave an hour or so before attempting to remove the track. Will minimise the chance of a thread seizing and having to dig out and repair one or more spinning fasteners.