[Public-List] Chain plates...

[Jeff Randall]

Gordon,  

Thanks for the sad reminder that trouble lurks wherever water seeps.   Also that even the most respected old salt has to constantly pay attention.    

As I get ready to do spring prep I will pay attention.    

Jeff Randall
Yankee Star. 296
Sent from my iPhone

> On Mar 17, 2022, at 6:48 AM, Gordon Laco via Public-List <public-list at lists.alberg30.org> wrote:
> 
> "So there I was… “
> 
> In the RCN stories, particularly stories involving disasters averted at the last moment are called ‘salty dips’.   When one is getting under way into a salty dip, you start with ’So there I was…’ while making a motion overhead as if one is knocking a lantern to make it swing, the image being you want to add effect to the tale by simulating the motion of your ship in the storm.   Imagine I’m doing that now.
> 
> So there I was, yesterday, about mid afternoon with the birds returning outside my office window, hope fading that my British supplier’s crate of fittings would arrive that day, all the desperate customers notified ‘hopefully tomorrow’, and for the moment pressing work caught up.  While I was building my new dinghy this winter, I forced myself into the habit of starting work early and downing tools (well shutting down the computer) at 3pm and doing two hours work on the boat.  The dinghy is virtually finished, so I decided yesterday to go over to SURPRISE have a look at her portside chain plates.
> 
> Last spring, my big job was to build raised and armoured blocks of metal, epoxy and fibre around each chainplate where it came through the deck in hopes of finally curing the persistent leaks there.  I did the job and the leaks were finally conquered… but I also noticed that during the season the portside primary shrouds chain plate seemed to have moved up minutely. I could detect this because I could see the ‘waterline’ of caulk on the plate where it came out of the metal top surface of the block. Hmmm, that’s bad.
> 
> I looked inside at what the plate is bolted to and saw it was bolted to the tabbing securing the bulkhead… the three bolts going through both tabbing and bulkhead.  There was a spacer on the after side, and that was dark mush.  It had once been plywood, but decades of leaks had destroyed the wood.  I turned the nuts and found them apparently loose… turning them in was compressing the mush.  That’s very bad.
> 
> All winter I’ve visualized the repair… well yesterday with the warm weather I went at it.  Imagine my horror when the mush came out with minimal effort.  Imagine my deeper horror when the bolts all came out with very stylish and complex bends in them, obviously from the stress imposed on them by the shroud they secured.    If anyone wants to see a picture, email me and I’ll send to you.  
> 
> So now I’m resolved to replace all the bolts in all the chainplates, and in place of the plywood (mushy or not) I am fitting in the very hard variety of mahogany I used for the knees and keel of my new dinghy.  
> 
> Am I glad I looked into this?  Oh yes… oh yes...
> 
> 
> Gordon Laco
> 426 Surprise
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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