[Public-List] Sail track rivets on mast - SS Machine screws

[John Birch]

We went 316 SS Machine screws on Sunstone, an A-37, Great Lakes boat. Same 
mast manufacturer, when we did a major overhaul of the rig. Used Sikkens 
291, now called something else, but the adhesive version. Felt locktight 
might be too corrosive, TefGel being non adhesive at all. Didn't want the 
machine screws to work loose. So far, no problems - the work was done at 
Klacko Spars in Bronte Ontario back in 1997.

Pulled a couple of machine screws to check, after acetoning out the holes, 
no whitish aluminum oxide present, looked like the threads had been cut 
yesterday. Then rebedded them with more Sikkens. None are loose.

Haven't taken the boat offshore in the ocean yet, but given the salinity of 
the upper Chesapeake, I imaging it would be just fine.

Danny Klacko recommended this approach - he does great work and knows his 
stuff.

Hope this is a help

John


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jeffrey" <alberg30nh at gmail.com>
To: "Alberg 30 Public List -- open to all" <public-list at lists.alberg30.org>
Sent: Monday, March 26, 2012 12:44 PM
Subject: [Public-List] Sail track rivets on mast


> Hi everyone,
>
> I need to do something about the main sail track. I know many of the 
> rivets
> are bad, last season we kept finding rivets heads on the deck!
>
> I've read through past messages in the list archives to see what others
> have done. I can't decide between hunting down monel rivets, tapping for 
> SS
> machine screws or just keeping replacing aluminum with aluminum.  I like
> the idea of ss machine screws but I'm concerned about corrosion even with
> the use of products like TefGel.
>
> Has there been some newly formed consensus on the subject? Anyone go the
> machine screw route and find it became a problem due to corrosion of the
> threads in the aluminum holes?
>
> -Jeff
>
> Jeff Fongemie
> #116 Seagrass
>
> http://picasaweb.google.com/fongemie
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