[Public-list] Re: chainplates

[Gordon White]

     Just my 2 cents, but this looks like a "it ain't broke - don't fix 
it" situation. In my experience, if minimal attention is paid to 
caulking with flexible caulk  there is very  little problem with the 
chainplates. (aside from perhaps putting in 5/16 " bolts, though on my 
boat the 1/4" bolts look fine)

    Seems to me there needs to be flexibility where the plate passes 
through the deck, even if there is rigidity where the plate fastens to 
(in the Alberg's case the bulkhead) or the topsides. There is more flex 
between the deck and the hull than you might think.

    In my 60 years on the water I have found that there  is probably a 
reason why things are done the way they are.  Sometimes there is "a 
better way," but sometimes not. Having owned several boats, all of which 
had essentially the same chainplate design with redundancy in the number 
of  fasteners and the spreading of the load over the length of the 
plate, I'd guess this was a proven method of attaching the stays.  In 
other areas of interest I have found that  trying to out-think the way 
things have been done for a long time is sometimes self-defeating. I 
have tried to be innovative in several projects I have undertaken and 
some have not worked as well as I had hoped. Not always, but often. This 
looks like one of them.

- Gordon White

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