Table fixing ideas...

[flaming]

I have a saloon table that is causing me grief.

It is a lightweight "faux carbon" type of thing. It fixes onto a mounting bracket that is welded to the side of the mast support post. 4 holes through which bolts pass, and wingnuts on the bolts to hold it in place. Those bolts are then epoxied to the bottom of the table.
Very lightweight sort of solution. Rather fragile, and I'm getting a little bored of fixing it every time a sail bag snags it or someone knocks into it. And annoyingly it has to be in place whilst sailing to comply with the rating rules, otherwise I would just make it easily removeable and have done with it. (Cue rant about IRC, but that's for another time....)

My 1st thought was to get a piece of wood and use threaded inserts, with the bolts becoming hand tightened types that would now come up from underneath, and with a much greater surface area to stick to, this joint would be a lot stronger than just expoy on the end of 4 bolts.

But... I'm now worried that this solution is actually too good... And that I'll just go from pulling the bolts off the bottom of the table to breaking the table....

So I'm after ideas for a solution that enables the table to be in place, but if it's hit too hard it would just pop off, and could be reattached immediately with no tools, and definitely no epoxy.... Some sort of higher strength velcro... Slightly complicating matters is that for the first time in its life the boat is actually going cruising this year, so it does need to be a fully functional table, capable of eating off.

Any ideas?

 

[Stemar]

Judging by the way sanding discs stick to my sander, a good quality Velcro might not be so daft, especially if you can arrange it so the force is in shear rather than tension. Alternatively, make the fixing to the table solid, but with horizontal rods that take some sort of shear pin to attach it to the mast post, strong enough to stand up to the rough and tumble, but will let go if serious force is applied.

 

[Neeves]

My imagination is failing me - why not take a picture so that we don't need to guess. We can then not be blamed for making idiotic suggestions.

Jonathan

 

[DJE]

Where the bolts are glued to the underside of the table could you drill right through it then use longer bolts with big washers top and bottom. It won't be pretty but it will be a lot stronger.

 

[Sandy]

Remove it if it is causing issues.

What is "faux carbon" and should I be worried about it?

 

[flaming]

 

[flaming]

Where the bolts are glued to the underside of the table could you drill right through it then use longer bolts with big washers top and bottom. It won't be pretty but it will be a lot stronger.

Don't really want to drill through the carbon....

 

[flaming]

Remove it if it is causing issues.

What is "faux carbon" and should I be worried about it?

If I remove it the rating office consider my boat to be significantly faster. So it has to stay....

Faux carbon in that the skin is carbon, but the underside is some sort of lightweight wood, painted black.

 

[flaming]

I'm pretty sure that I have a solution for a "as strong as I can make it" attachment. But my fear is that the table itself will then become the weak point and I don't want it to break.... What I'm looking for is suggestions for a solution that will be strong enough when it's in use as a table, but give when someone falls on it, as it seems my crew are want to do from time to time....

 

[Thistle]

If I remove it the rating office consider my boat to be significantly faster. So it has to stay....

Do they insist on it being fitted in place or could it be removed and stowed elsewhere?

 

[Sandy]

If I remove it the rating office consider my boat to be significantly faster. So it has to stay....

Faux carbon in that the skin is carbon, but the underside is some sort of lightweight wood, painted black.

Gosh, we live in very different worlds. Never realised a table was such a significant part to boat speed. I view them as a convenient surface to place a nice heavy glass containing a good malt whisky at the end of the sail.

Thanks, never knew there was such a material as faux carbon, every day is a school day.

 

[flaming]

Do they insist on it being fitted in place or could it be removed and stowed elsewhere?

Has to be fitted. Don't get me started on how little sense this makes.

 

[Neeves]

I think you need to define the rule(s)

If the rule is that specific table must be carried and in situ then carrying another table, in situ, would not meet the rules - and your own modifications should similarly be unacceptable. If your suggested modifications are acceptable - maybe other options would be acceptable (like a smaller table) (or a disposable table - paper mache or balsa comes to mind). If you must use that table then maybe you need to accept it will fail as a table (and make sure it does - self destroying bolts - for racing and high tensile bolts for the real world.

Are you in some way penalised if the table is destroyed...?

 

[flaming]

Gosh, we live in very different worlds. Never realised a table was such a significant part to boat speed. I view them as a convenient surface to place a nice heavy glass containing a good malt whisky at the end of the sail.

Thanks, never knew there was such a material as faux carbon, every day is a school day.

To be fair I'm just calling it faux carbon, because it's not solid carbon fibre. If it was I would have no qualms about it's ability to withstand falling crew....

The rating authority want you to leave the interior in place because they consider that being able to dual purpose the boat will drive participation. The logic of this is questionable, as racing often damages the interior, so having a table that could be unshipped quickly, stored on the boat, and then out back into position quickly if you want to support a bottle of whisky is manifestly a better solution, but falls on deaf ears...

 

[Neeves]

I am sympathetic - I could never understand, in my day, why the toilet needed a, solid, door - curtain was not accepted.

Jonathan

 

[flaming]

I think you need to define the rule(s)

If the rule is that specific table must be carried and in situ then carrying another table, in situ, would not meet the rules - and your own modifications should similarly be unacceptable. If your suggested modifications are acceptable - maybe other options would be acceptable (like a smaller table) (or a disposable table - paper mache or balsa comes to mind). If you must use that table then maybe you need to accept it will fail as a table (and make sure it does - self destroying bolts - for racing and high tensile bolts for the real world.

Are you in some way penalised if the table is destroyed...?

I have had a very lengthy exchange with RORC on the subject of my table.

The long and short is, this table needs to be in place and useable as a table whilst racing. I can do this, but I'm looking for any good ideas to fixing it that reduce the chance of just moving the place of failure to something harder to fix when it's sat on, again....

 

[Boathook]

Has to be fitted. Don't get me started on how little sense this makes.

Fit it at floor level. Complies with rules and out of the way or up at the ceiling.

 

[Neeves]

I'd buy some cardboard, coat with a real faux carbon paper, make into a table top, make 20 of them, should be as cheap as chips - accept they will be destroyed, put real table away.

 

[Boathook]

What about bigHead products | bigHead Bonding Fasteners ? Use epoxy resin, etc on the underside of table. Will add weight but not much.

What do all the other boats do about this table ?

 

[Neeves]

I was intrigued, as I used to supply to the paper industry.

https://edition.cnn.com/furniture-design-cardboard-artist-cop28/index.html

Cardboard furniture is common place. You seem to suggest table destruction is not unusual, on your yacht. Embrace the idea. Make a cardboard table top, coat with a printed version of carbon reinforcement. Make as many as you need, cheap as - you will have a table top that will actually be serviceable, unless the crew sit on it. No different to current situation.

What's not to like.

Jonathan