Welding stemhead in situ

[Mtebb]

Hello all,

My westerly centaur's stem head is starting to crack, still got a lot of good metal left but I would, of course, much rather my stem head have no cracks at all.

My question is this, is there any way of welding it in situ or is my boat just going to catch fire? I'll detune the rig and remove it if I need to but it'd be nice to save the trouble. (especially as I will need to install new deck cleats first to take the load on the halyards)


Thanks for any insight,

Martin.

 

[jwilson]

I think you probably already know the answer. Take it off.....

 

[Baddox]

Of course it can be done.
But you would still need to remove it to repair the hole burnt in the boat during welding.

 

[Mtebb]

Yeah you are right, I know the answer realy. Just got to suck it up and take it off. I think I have been fixing stuff and not sailing for to long, just tired and looking for easy ways out, needed some sense putting back into me.

Thanks all, I'll just have a whiskey and a break and get back at it in a few days.

 

[Poignard]

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?415880-Bow-Roller-Cracks-How-worried-should-I-be

 

[Elessar]

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?415880-Bow-Roller-Cracks-How-worried-should-I-be

That crack is not going to heal. Get it mended pronto!

If you slacken the shrouds and it isn’t windy the forestay load is trivial. I’d just tie the jib halyard to the pulpit and disconnect the forestay without losing sleep.

 

[VicS]

Yeah you are right, I know the answer realy. Just got to suck it up and take it off. I think I have been fixing stuff and not sailing for to long, just tired and looking for easy ways out, needed some sense putting back into me.

Thanks all, I'll just have a whiskey and a break and get back at it in a few days.

Supporting the mast should be no problem.

No real reason to touch the cap shrouds. just take the tension out of the lowers the back stay and the baby stay and for good measure take a halyard to the mooring cleat.

Your biggest problem will be unbolting the thing from the deck, especially if the nuts ate glassed over.

An old heavy wood chisel makes quite a good tool for chopping away the fiber- glass from over the nuts

 

[Poignard]

Supporting the mast should be no problem.

No real reason to touch the cap shrouds. just take the tension out of the lowers the back stay and the baby stay and for good measure take a halyard to the mooring cleat.

Your biggest problem will be unbolting the thing from the deck, especially if the nuts ate glassed over.

An old heavy wood chisel makes quite a good tool for chopping away the fiber- glass from over the nuts

There should be a special place in hell for people who glass-over nuts :disgust:

What the OP could do is to free up each fastening, one at a time, then retighten it lightly, before disconnecting the forestay. Then when the forestay is off the fitting can be quickly removed. This will also allow him to obtain replacements for any damaged/corroded fasteners before they are needed.

 

[Mtebb]

I think I will order a new double roller one, might as well upgrade it while I am at it. Plus that way I will just have to whip one off and stick the other one on without running off to get it welded. Plus the double roller has a longer bracket coming down off it, the single only has one bolt into the front of the boat the rest is all the top plate.

I like the idea of easing the bolts one at a time with it on, I can be doing that while I wait for the new stemhead. the back four bolts are not glassed in but unfortunately the front three are, I will just need to chip it away as suggested, thankfully it does not look thick. I'll get round to properly reseating the pullpit while I am at it.

I am assuming the head was weakened with an impact to the front of the boat, as the pullpit is a touch warped at the deck and some of the front moulding around the metal nose plate is a bit warped. can only hope I wont incounter to much more damage when I take it all off.

What could possibly go wrong.

Thanks for all the advice,

Martin.

 

[burgundyben]

There should be a special place in hell for people who glass-over nuts :disgust:

It was very common practice at Westerly. I think a number of deck fittings were mounted before the deck moulding was fitted onto the hull, then anything near the perimeter got glassed over.

 

[Mtebb]

Another quick question if I may, having never taken the tension off a forestay before what is the best way to do it? how many turns am I taking of the other stays, will I need to slacken them all the way off or just take a couple of turns off them?

I was assuming I'd just need to release tension bit by bit on the backstay/forestay, then take the strain on the halyard to release the forestay bolt.

As a further note the double roller will be a few weeks if I order it now, might be able to get a single one a little quicker. I'm assuming under normal loads at a pontoon the stemhead is not in any immediate danger of failure, or should I be considerably more hurried in my repairs?

 

[Spirit (of Glenans)]

That crack is not going to heal. Get it mended pronto!

If you slacken the shrouds and it isn’t windy the forestay load is trivial. I’d just tie the jib halyard to the pulpit and disconnect the forestay without losing sleep.

Jib halyard one side, spin halyard the other side , also the uphaul and any spare halyard you have, belt and braces!
And wear eye protection when chipping away fibreglass.

 

[ghostlymoron]

I like your plan - turning disaster into triumph. Sadly some of my projects go the other way.

I think I will order a new double roller one, might as well upgrade it while I am at it. Plus that way I will just have to whip one off and stick the other one on without running off to get it welded. Plus the double roller has a longer bracket coming down off it, the single only has one bolt into the front of the boat the rest is all the top plate.

I like the idea of easing the bolts one at a time with it on, I can be doing that while I wait for the new stemhead. the back four bolts are not glassed in but unfortunately the front three are, I will just need to chip it away as suggested, thankfully it does not look thick. I'll get round to properly reseating the pullpit while I am at it.

I am assuming the head was weakened with an impact to the front of the boat, as the pullpit is a touch warped at the deck and some of the front moulding around the metal nose plate is a bit warped. can only hope I wont incounter to much more damage when I take it all off.

What could possibly go wrong.

Thanks for all the advice,

Martin.

 

[VicS]

the back four bolts are not glassed in but unfortunately the front three are, I will just need to chip it away as suggested, thankfully it does not look thick.

What could possibly go wrong.

Martin.

Resin on the threads of the front three screws may make life difficult!

 

[Elessar]

Another quick question if I may, having never taken the tension off a forestay before what is the best way to do it? how many turns am I taking of the other stays, will I need to slacken them all the way off or just take a couple of turns off them?

I was assuming I'd just need to release tension bit by bit on the backstay/forestay, then take the strain on the halyard to release the forestay bolt.

As a further note the double roller will be a few weeks if I order it now, might be able to get a single one a little quicker. I'm assuming under normal loads at a pontoon the stemhead is not in any immediate danger of failure, or should I be considerably more hurried in my repairs?

You’ll know when the rig is slack enough when you do it. You will probably need to slacken the shrouds as because they are aft of the mast they pull towards the stern a bit.

It’s not going to fail just sat there I doubt but you're worried rig your halyards in the position they’ll be for taking the forestay off as belt and braces.

 

[Mtebb]

That's a good idea, I always like a bit of belt and braces when it comes to boats. Might stick the halyards down just as a redundancy, that'd give me time to detune the rig quick if for some reson it did fail suddenly. I suspect it's been like it for some time though and I just haven't noticed.